The last paragraph in the article states otherwise though. "The photos were captured along a linear path; this geometry provided structure that the researchers

The last paragraph in the article states otherwise though. "The photos were captured along a linear path; this geometry provided structure that the researchers could leverage to make processing the data more efficient. However, the researchers also generalized their approach so that it can be applied even to a set of images taken with a hand-held camera." Also, even the photos taken on the rail are not taken as video. You can tell this from the shots where someone is briefly in front of the camera. This is because to get the best data you want the camera to stop at a position on the rail while the shutter is open as otherwise you have to deal with motion blur or keep your exposure very short.