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Throwable 36-Camera Ball Takes Spherical Panoramas

Posted by Soulskill on from the anyone-want-to-play-some-volleyball dept.

MrSeb writes "Jonas Pfeil, a student from the Technical University of Berlin, has created a rugged, grapefruit-sized ball that has 36 fixed-focus, 2-megapixel digital camera sensors built in. The user simply throws the ball into the air and photos are simultaneously taken with all 36 cameras to create a full, spherical panorama of the surrounding scene. The ball itself is made with a 3D printer, and the innards (which includes 36 STM VS6724 CMOS camera sensors, an accelerometer, and two microcontrollers to control the cameras) are adequately padded, so presumably it doesn't matter if you're bad at throwing and catching."

7 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. Hmmm... by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hmmm so now I can take photos WITH my balls.

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  2. Re:Viewing is going to be kind of lame by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yea, all you'd have to do is throw it into a bunker, then go into said bunker to retrieve the ball, come back out of the bunker, plug the ball into a computer and look at the pictures. Then you'll know exactly what was in that bunker you were just in. Revolutionary I tell ya.

  3. Re:Viewing is going to be kind of lame by ClioCJS · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yea. This idea obviously needs to be tabled until they develop a method to somehow transmit information across the air. Some sort of... radio waves or wifi or something. Until then, this is a dumb idea, because obviously they would have to go into the bunker and get the ball back. How stupid of them.

    --
    -Clio
    Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
    Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
  4. Re:Viewing is going to be kind of lame by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Think of the military value though. Toss a ball into a bunker, bounce it around the corner, throw it straight up to see what's on the other side of a wall, etc...

    Think of the high school teenager value. Toss it into the locker room, bounce it around into the shower, instant 36 counts of manufacturing child porn.

    --
    Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
  5. Re:Viewing is going to be kind of lame by houghi · · Score: 4, Funny

    This would be a bad idea for the US military as everybody else in the world is better at soccer.

    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  6. Re:Viewing is going to be kind of lame by The+Creator · · Score: 3, Funny

    Heck, why not fill the little bugger with explosives while we're at it?

    Bad idea, it would make retrieving it dangerous.

    --

    FRA: STFU GTFO
  7. Re:Viewing is going to be kind of lame by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Put a countdown led on it and the bad guys might feel like throwing it back out