A few weeks ago, GigaPan launched the beta release of their website to share and explore Gigapixel photographs. I’m sure you have heard about previous gigapixel images that were stitched together from hundreds of photos. GigaPan now allows you to create such images as well. They are currently taking orders for the beta of their GigaPan Robotic Camera Mount that can assist just about any camera in taking gigapixel images. And it only runs $279!
You can then create a free account on their website to upload and share you gigapixel images. There are already a number of images up on their site, but it looks like most are not true gigapixel size yet…I especially like the Burning Man 2006 Waffle image. Regardless of the pixel size, you can zoom in and move around the images using their intuitive click and drag display system. This takes “exploring photos” to a whole new level!
Gigapan was developed by Carnegie Mellon University in collaboration with NASA Ames Intelligent Robotics Group and with support from Google. The “How Cool Is That” press release from Carnegie Mellon announced the availability of the camera.
I’ve been interested in their system for a while and register my email address with them. I ordered mine when I got their email announcing the beta program it but I haven’t heard anything back yet. We’ll see if I was too late and if it was worth it.
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