Make Magazine has a story on how to make inexpensive panoramic video. Dennis Gliksman used duct tape and 6 wide angle firewire video cameras ($129 each).
Panoramic video is like a QTVR window into a scene. With movement all around. The Omnidirectional Vision Page has a terrific overview of 360 degree video techniques.The problem with panoramic video, like panoramic stills, is bandwidth. A 360 degree shot has to be at least 6 screens wide requiring a similar increase in bandwidth. Standard video cameras don’t have the resolution.
HDTV might. If you shot HD video, up into a panoramic mirror, perhaps a single camera would do the trick. With an effective height of 120 pixels and an effective length of 800-1200 pixels, perhaps single camera video panoramas could be practical.
Panasonic’s new $399 FZ7 still camera can shoot 848 x 480 (16:9) video at 30 frames/second. I wonder what would happen if you pointed it up into a 360 degree mirror. With the right deconvolving software, perhaps you’d end up with 360 degree concert videos. Or maybe not.
How about that Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX1, HDTV still camera. The 8-Megapixel, widescreen shooter has Optical Image Stabilization and can record HD video ($700). The $550 Canon S80 point and shoot can record movies in XGA resolution (1024 x 768 pixels) at 15 frames per second.
Point it up into a Kaidan 360 One VR lens (right, $749.95) consisting of a lightweight and rugged optical system and EyeSee360 PhotoWarp software. The 360 One VR optic provides a complete 360° horizontal panorama with a 100° vertical field-of-view (50° above and 50° below the horizon).Sony’s HDR-HC1 HDV Camcorder ($1999) is the first High Definition (HDV) camcorder under $2,000. The HDR-HC1 features a single 4:3 aspect ratio CMOS chip and achieves a resolution nearly triple most MiniDV camcorders, recording some 656.1 lines of horizontal resolution and 480 lines of vertical resolution. The Sony HDR-HC3, available in a couple of months, will have 1080i. Screw on a fisheye lens and you’re good to go.
Make a Panoramic EventCam with six, $500 Canon S80s with wide angle lenses. Breeze Systems’s RemoteCapture lets you control the cameras from a remote PC.
Or automatically FTP to a Zoom Server like Social Canvas so multiple users can (virtually) zoom in on a small section of an 8 Meg image.Here a 360 degree panorama from the top of Mt Everest and a one Gig Panoscan.
Or automatically FTP to a Zoom Server like Social Canvas so multiple users can (virtually) zoom in on a small section of an 8 Meg image.Here a 360 degree panorama from the top of Mt Everest and a one Gig Panoscan. Related DailyWireless articles include; Canon $500 WiFi Camera, Nikon’s $500 WiFi Cameras, Katrina Telecomunications Report, How To Spend Your Homeland Security Check, Theaters Go 3-D, Gigapixel Imaging, Open Source Pano Software, Panoramic EventCams, Wireless Still Photography, Wireless Photography, 360 Degree Surveillence, 360 Degree Video, 360 Degree Video Blogs, Wireless 360 Video, Maxtrix The City, Wireless Netcams, Multimedia Travel, Reality Now, Telepresence Now, The Open Horse Project, Portland’s Vision Project, and 3D Cities.
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