The world of photography and new age cameras have really embraced some of the latest, most innovative technology out there as of late. Think aerial photography, satellite photography and even deep, underwater cams.
However, there are 3 engineers that have just designed a panoramic camera that will hit everything else out the park.
Introducing the Panono. The Panono is a 360-degree panoramic camera in the shape of a ball. Why a ball, you ask? So you can throw it in the air and let it take panoramic pictures.
The Panono literally captures everything in every direction. It takes 360-degree shots of a single moment in time.
The throwable, ball-like device is covered with 36 small, yet powerful cameras. These cameras are all programmed to take a picture simultaneously, so you are getting an image of every direction at the exact same moment.
How does it know when to take a picture? Well, the camera contains an accelerometer. This means that when the camera is thrown up in the air, the accelerometer measures the launch acceleration to calculate when the ball will reach it‘s apex.
When the ball reaches it‘s highest point, the device take a picture, at exactly the same time, with all 36 of it‘s cameras.
Once these pictures are taken, they are the spliced into a high-definition, 72-megapixel image, which then gets sent to your smartphone or tablet.
However, taking 36 photos at exactly the same time from all directions doesn‘t mean you‘ll have a 360-degree panoramic shot. What is even more impressive, is that these images get sent to a free cloud stitching service, that perfectly stitches the images together for you.
But not to worry – before the images get sent to the cloud stitching, they will be sent to your smartphone or tablet for a quick preview. Once they‘re all stitched up, you simply download the panoramic shot to your smartphone or tablet. Also, if you don‘t want a panoramic shot, you can also get the 36, unprocessed images raw.
The pictures will then be stored on your phone, tablet or in the cloud. But, should you need extra space, or your smarthone or tablet is not connected to the device, the camera itself is also able to store images in it‘s internal flash memory. It is able to store up to 400 panoramic shots within its flash memory. So you can be sure to keep your all your panoramic pictures.
If you‘re not to keen on throwing the camera up in the air, its also possible to use the camera as a normal, handheld camera – there is button you can press to take pictures – or, if you need some extra height, you can place the camera on a pole and take pictures above some heads.
This revolutionary idea is the brain-child of computer engineer, Jonas Pfeil. Pfeil came up with the idea while working on his Masters degree at the University of Berlin.
Gallery: The powerful Panono –
The original prototype was designed and assembled two years ago, but was too expensive to mass-produce. Fast forward to 2013; Pfeil got some friends involved and came up with a new design that will make the camera more affordable.
The Panono is currently running a campaign on crowd-funding site, Indiegogo. The company has raised $196,477 out of it‘s $900 000 goal thus far, with an incredible $138,000 raised in the first day alone – obviously.
Panono truly is an incredible product that will have a massive effect on new-age, tech-driven photography. However, one question does come to mind: what goes up, must come down, right? What happens if you drop the Panono.
According to their promo video – which you can see below – the Panono is tough, and you will be able to “œdrop it on occasions“.
Safe enough to drop a couple of times, but you would probably have to work on your ball skills when owning one of these.
If you would like to pre-order a Panono or donate to their campaign, check out their Indiegogo page: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/panono-panoramic-ball-camera
Promo video –
