Enjoy taking photos? Enjoy taking panoramic photos? Enjoy throwing your camera into the air, high above your head? This is probably the product for you.
The patent-pending Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera allows you to obtain full spherical panoramas with a simple toss and catch.
The ball camera is actually 36 separate 2 megapixel mobile camera modules that face outward from all points on the sphere. The ball-enclosure is 3D printed and it padded with foam – for easy throwing. Users toss the camera into the air and the snapshot is triggered when it reaches its highest point – the built in accelerometer handles that task.
When your Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera is full of pictures, you can transfer them with a USB cable and start checking out your awesome new panoramic views.
The product was developed by Computer Graphics Group in Berlin, and here’s what they have to say about the motives behind the device –
Panoramic photography creates fascinating images. Very wide angle images are closer to the human field of view than conventional pictures. If seen through a panoramic viewer they let us experience a location as if we were there. Panoramic image stitching can create panoramas from pictures taken one after another. Unfortunately, acquiring the images takes a lot of time and moving objects may cause ghosting. It is also difficult to obtain a full spherical panorama, because the downward picture cannot be captured while the camera is mounted on the tripod.
Check out this video of the camera in action –
And here’s a closeup of the device itself-
This looks pretty damn fun – but if I had to make one suggestion I would suggest that they try a little harder with that name.
What do you think? Something you could see finding its way on your holiday wish list? Let us know in the comments.