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The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Rob Galbraith have reported on a new robotic platform for capturing very-high-resolution panoramas with consumer digital cameras. The Gigapan platform was developed by the Global Connection Project, a joint effort of Carnegie Mellon University, NASA, Google, and National Geographic. It allows a camera mounted on the robotic arm to capture panoramic images with resolutions of a gigapixel or more. Image resolution depends on the camera's zoom range; the Global Connection Project claims resolutions of photos captured with some consumer digital cameras can be 30 gigapixels or more.
The Global Connection Project has also created an online spatial browser that lets viewers zoom into panorama images, simulating the experience of being in the scene. To try the browser and view panoramas taken with the Gigapan, go to the Gigapan Web site. The Gigapan browser joins Microsoft Live Labs's Photosynth beta software in creating huge photos that can be explored with a spatial browser, although Photosynth's 3D images are created by combining multiple shots of the same subject.
According to the Post-Gazette article, the Global Connection Project plans to release a consumer version of the Gigapan in March 2007 for under US$200. The Project's Web site will also publish a reference design so that handy photographers can make their own robotic platforms. Galbraith's report on the Gigapan mentions a similar but pricier device that is already available, the PanoMachine. That platform and other panorama-creation devices are available for sale at MK Panorama Systeme.
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