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NASA Robot Can Shoot Panorama Photos? My Monkey Can Do That!

by Staff Writer

Gigapan Robot to Shoot PanoramasPhoto Credit: Engadget

NASA’s Ames Intelligent Robot Group and Carnegie Mellon University say they have developed a robot that can shoot panorama photos on its own using a digital camera. They call it the Gigapan and they plan to unleash it to the public so they too can shoot panorama photos.

I don’t know about you, but I think it’s fairly easy to make panorama pictures with your ordinary digital camera using a steady hand (or a tripod) and a stitching software.

And maybe it was just me, but when I checked out their “dynamically viewable images,� it disappeared beyond the top of my browser every time I tried to zoom in and all I had was a black screen without any photo at all.

Coming from CMU and NASA, the Gigapan must be a worthwhile project. After all, the idea for the robot and its associated software came from Mars rovers (Gee, thanks; you have something to show for your Giga-bucks budget). Maybe they can indeed provide support for disaster relief efforts or publish National Geographic content in Google Earth. But if all they can offer are panorama photos that disappear as you zoom in, thanks guys; but no thanks.

My monkey can do that. Better.

[Site: Gigapan.org]

[Links: Engadget.com, Adorama.com, Primidi.com]

Update: As of 0745H GMT Feb 05 2007 the Engadget news item about the Gigapan has been removed. Why?

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Posted in General on February 5th, 2007

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Digital shutters will attempt to make sense of the tech talk about digital cameras explaining the different terms used and what they really mean. Give tips on what you should do with all those pictures you take, and the newest releases from the manufactures.

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