Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera

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By John Baichtal
Posted 2011/10/14 @ 8:00 am
Category Photography & Video

We present the Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera which captures a full spherical panorama when thrown into the air. At the peak of its flight, which is determined using an accelerometer, a full panoramic image is captured by 36 mobile phone camera modules.

[Via @Johl; Images courtesy of Jonas Pfeil, CC]

BY John Baichtal

My interests include writing, electronics, RPGs, comics, scifi, hackers & hackerspaces, 3D printing, building sets, & toys.

In the Maker Shed

Calculator Kit from Spikenzie Labs

Tux Case for Raspberry Pi

BrushBots

Getting Started with Arduino Kit v3.0

27 Responses to Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera

Brad Leclerc on October 14th, 2011 at 9:39 am said:

That’s INSANELY cool.

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Tim Kemp on October 14th, 2011 at 10:28 am said:

Very cool. I want one!

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Matthew Daughtrey on October 14th, 2011 at 10:45 am said:

Now fire it out of an air cannon…

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Dave Brunker on October 14th, 2011 at 11:07 am said:

Looks like it would be out of my price range. *sigh* Nice Creative Commons music from IZCY though, thanks! http://wacca.fm/a_music/izityi/list

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Anonymous on October 14th, 2011 at 11:27 am said:

i don;’t know about you, but that photo sucks – you got all sorts of different lighting, distortion, etc.

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- VRAndy on October 14th, 2011 at 3:26 pm said:
  
  Yes. However, The first one in the video is a lot better. I don’t know if they represent different stitching software, or just how the device performs in different conditions.
  
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- Gordon Wrigley on October 15th, 2011 at 2:21 am said:
  
  the stitching is just amateurish, the open source hugin tools do a far better job straight out of the box
  
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  Anonymous on October 15th, 2011 at 6:50 pm said:
  
  Great plug of open source I didn’t know there was a Panorama app in the Ubuntu Software Center. Out of curiosity, do you know if the Hugin code is being used on bored any commercial phones or cameras? It seems to do a really good job at stitching and I try to do all I can to support open source projects
  
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Anonymous on October 14th, 2011 at 7:53 pm said:

So simple, and such en elegant idea. Love it.

Now, make it float.

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Adam Eyring on October 15th, 2011 at 3:57 pm said:

I think the military will find this useful. Just throw it up from behind a wall to see what’s behind. If it gets shot down, no human loss.

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- Rufus 'Ruthless' Driscoll on October 25th, 2011 at 1:37 pm said:
  
  Or they could a mirror. I hear that’s some pretty amazing technology too
  
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Brad Friend on October 15th, 2011 at 10:52 pm said:

make it smaller, link it to a laptop, put it in a flare gun, use it for instant recon of the immediate area in a military situation. Now where’s my medal?

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- Jason Ogorek on October 17th, 2011 at 9:53 am said:
  
  You honestly think the army needs a ball with cameras when the have satellites that can count the hairs on your arms?
  
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  Maik on November 7th, 2011 at 2:49 am said:
  
  So tell me, how do the satellites count the hairs on your arm through the roof of a building?
  
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  Anonymous on December 10th, 2011 at 12:39 pm said:
  
  How does a panorama ball count the hairs on your arms through the roof of a building?
  
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  Maik on December 11th, 2011 at 11:42 am said:
  
  How about HD cams? It’s mobile phone cams in that ball, so shouldn’t be much of a problem
Dhawal D on October 16th, 2011 at 2:15 am said:

awesome idea..

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imad ud din yousaf butt on October 16th, 2011 at 9:04 am said:

i think make it a bit lighter n put a motor in it that can b able to throw air through 5 different holes. these holes must be below the equator of sphere. so that it can fly in the air n can reach up to desired level in the air by controlling it with a remote control. secondly converting it to video instead of snapshot is better so that it can b used as security camera. in this way only one 1 instead of various cameras ,putting at various angles, can b placed.

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Anonymous on October 16th, 2011 at 10:54 am said:

How much? =)

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Landon Morgan on October 16th, 2011 at 7:04 pm said:

Put better cameras on it, reprogram it to capture/broadcast photos remotely, then launch thousands into space in every direction simultaneously. Matrix in Space!!! Do you like photography, panoramas, 360 panoramas, film, video or anything in between? Follow me on twitter @studionowlandon:twitter or fan us on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/aolstudionow.

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James Black on October 17th, 2011 at 12:35 am said:

I have to agree with Brad, the military applications here are pretty astounding.

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Derek Olson on October 18th, 2011 at 8:47 am said:

Guess you are kinda screwed if you drop it in the Grand Canyon

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reza on October 18th, 2011 at 11:48 am said:

Hi sir
Would you please tell me about its price???
I’m so interested of buying it for my career projects
please let me now : srhamzeh@gmail.com

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Konrad on October 26th, 2011 at 1:50 pm said:

Haters…. It’s a prototype. In 10 years stuff like this will be rock star.

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Anonymous on October 31st, 2011 at 11:05 am said:

my best friend’s aunt makes $70/hr on the laptop. She has been out of work for 6 months but last month her check was $8183 just working on the laptop for a few hours. Read this site NuttyRich.cöm

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mahesh on March 8th, 2012 at 11:15 pm said:

hii sir plz send me documentations of camera ball

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Hamada Reda on August 13th, 2012 at 12:02 pm said:

how cost please ???????

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