Five researchers from the Technical University of Berlin came up with the idea to make an unusual panoramic camera in the shape of a ball that takes 360-degree images when thrown up.
Their conceptual device, the Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera, is as big as a soccer ball and has 36 sensors that give one panoramic shot at a time.
Making such a shot traditionally is quite complicated, because the camera has to rotate manually around its axis, and the objects being shot can move, which results in the appearance of ghosts in the final shot.
The ball-shaped camera solves this problem by simultaneously triggering 36 two-megapixel cameras with a fixed focus (such as those built into mobile phones as modules) at the moment when it reaches the highest point in its flight after a throw. The device is therefore equipped with an accelerometer that takes care of its acceleration. The ball takes a picture when it reaches its maximum height because it is at rest at that moment.
The body of the camera is in the shape of a ball coated with a sponge, so it will probably survive a fall even if it is not caught after the throw. Captured images are downloaded via the USB port.
This panoramic ball camera will be shown in mid-December in Hong Kong, at the SIGGRAPH Asia 2011 conference, and its creators hope to attract the attention of investors.
Source: B92.net
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