Gigapan robot snaps panoramic views, assembles results

We're absolutely certain there's a vast array of naturally gifted photographers out there that don't need a robot to do a man's job, but for those of us who can't hold our elbows perfectly still and snap a dozen or so photographs in a panoramic pattern without ruining the entire shot, Gigapan's got you covered. The robotic shooting platform was developed by Carnegie Mellon University and the NASA Ames Intelligent Robot Group, and can manhandle almost any digital camera in order to capture a wide-angle view of any particular scene without the breaks we humans often inject. The robot will click away depending on a timer and the number of snapshots that users program in, resulting in a very high resolution, widescreen image of a crime scene, vacation overlook, or your entire basement wall of Transformers posters. Moreover, the team has developed accompanying software to "piece together" the resulting images, leaving a nearly flawless reproduction of a panoramic view with an immensely increased level of detail. Expected to cost "around $200 or less," the Gigapan could be in civilian hands as early as next month, after which we'll have to start an entirely new photo contest devoted to cramming as many miles as possible into a single, uber-wide shot, but for now, be sure to click on through for a small taste of what this monkey can do.

[Via Primidi]

[anorexia @ Feb 4th 2007 8:38PM]

oh, wow. that actually looks pretty neat.

i would buy that.

[k @ Feb 5th 2007 3:58PM]

There is also some smart software that eliminates all of the tedious stitching work, and doesn't require the photographs to be pre-aligned in any way.

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html

[Jeff @ Feb 4th 2007 8:46PM]

Meh!

This would be great if there wasn't a totally free tool already available that does the exact same thing and that doesn't require any goofy robotic hardware.

It's called Autostitch - google it.

If you want to see what this program can do, look at the second photo on this page: http://badasscat.blogspot.com/2006/10/japan-hotels-and-how-to-find-one.html

The original version of that is close to 1 gigapixel. (It's around 100 photos at 8.2 megapixels each.) I shot it entirely handheld out of my hotel window. I did nothing whatsoever to the individual photos; just clicked "stitch" in Autostitch.

Sure, if you're lazy, you can buy this robot thing and just let your camera do all the work. But who's going to carry something like that around all over the place on their vacation or whatever? Just take your camera, shoot a bunch of photos from one spot and then stitch them together later with Autostitch.

[Zandr @ Feb 4th 2007 8:52PM]

A commercial version of this would be worthy of Gizmodo, and I'd buy one in a heartbeat. As a university project, this is hardly innovative. There have been plenty of panorama heads, motorized and not, over the years.

[Chris @ Feb 4th 2007 9:24PM]

The S100 Canon I had years ago had a pano mode that would show you 1/3 of the last shot on the side of the screen so you line up the next shot, and software that did a reasonable job of stitching them together. with a standard tripod it was trivial to produce a high quality pano, and even freehand (which I am very shaky at) it make a decent shot. Here's one I did freehand of a double rainbow and made no effort in the software to make it look better: http://flatline.free-source.com/files/Rainbow.jpg

[Clinton @ Feb 5th 2007 3:18AM]

The current and previous line of HP Photosmart R-series cameras does this as well. You can stitch together up to 5 frames. After snapping a frame, an overlay from the edge of the frame appears on top of the next frame so that you can better match up the seams.

Stitching can be done in-camera or by the software.

Take a look at some panoramas I shot last month: http://new.photos.yahoo.com/[e-mail]/tag/panorama. All were shot with the camera in my unsteady hands. I have only found one error in the stitching, due to my having moved at an improper angle; you can figure out which one.

[Tom @ Feb 5th 2007 3:11AM]

It's not for photo buffs; it's for police departments. In no time at all it will become the standard -- every significant crime scene will have to be photographed with one. It will be a very valuable patent.

The reason it will sell is that it will be simple enough for the dumbest cop to use correctly. The instructions will be:

- set up tripod
- attach gizmo to top
- press button
- don't stand in front of camera until it beeps that it's done.

They'll sell a ton of them. Every law enforcement agency will buy at least one, maybe a few. Real estate investors will buy them. Many other govt. agencies, too.

[Mr Yuk @ Feb 5th 2007 8:46AM]

CMU should combine this with the 3D printer (and some software) to make a "replicator" - that would be cool.

[Jeff @ Feb 5th 2007 5:09PM]

Alright, I admit I was a bit of a curmudgeon in my previous comment.

But did anyone else notice that this post disappeared for nearly an entire day, then reappeared with updated text? Just wondering a bit about that.

Nice to see I'm not the only one using AutoStitch... (I'd also like to point out that I am in no way affiliated with the guys who make that app, I just think it's a really cool app).

[Jake @ Feb 5th 2007 6:39PM]

A much cheaper way to accomplish this is to just take a few snapshots with any digital camera in the same relative direction and then run them through a piece of software like AutoStitch. You can use this "technique" to make massive panoramas of hundreds of images with relatively little effort.