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Take Hands-Free 360 Degree Panoramic Photos With an iPhone (Video)
In a way, this app is nothing but a cute gimmick. There are many apps that allow you to make panoramic photos on an iPhone, not to mention the panorama feature built into iOS6 -- and plenty for Android, too. But Cycloramic makes your iPhone spin around while standing on edge (on a smooth surface), which is a fine stunt and a great party trick. And it's endorsed by Steve Wozniak, which is a boast few iPhone apps can make. He calls it "Unexpected, fanciful, and useful all at the same time!" Even if it had no practical value whatsoever, you might want to blow 99 cents on Cyclorama just to watch your phone make you dizzy. Most Android phones won't stand on edge. (Tim's won't and neither will mine.) So an Android version would require a stand. Or at least a pattern so we could make our own stands out of cardboard or sheet plastic. But that's a "maybe," and apparently not likely to come along soon. For the moment we'll just have to envy iPhone owners as their phones magically spin around, taking photos now and then as they turn.
Wow. This is awesome! I'm going to go out right now and buy an iPhone and this app, no matter how much it costs! I don't know where my life would be without this feature!
Everyone's upset about this story being a slashvertisement. Toss in a 3D printer and suddenly it's the future of humanity.
"How do these slashvertisements keep getting worse?"
Dice.
Nuff said.
The reason this works is because the app knows exactly where the vibration unit is and where it behaves.
If you had a stand for an Android phone the app would have to be calibrated for the stand, and for the exact model of phone you have.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I don't believe it. Go to the table behind the guy and show me, not his prerecorded video.
It's a cool toy not an advertisement. Try doing something cool youself instead of just being an ass.
Here's the video you were probably expecting to see where the "spins the phone" feature is actually demonstrated rather than just talked about.
I suppose that's kind of neat, but probably not worth a six minute video in which the feature being talked about is never actually shown off.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
This brings to mind people who used to code with the physical parameters of the machine in question in mind. Seek times, rotating cylinders, the works.
In a way, this video is nothing but a waste of time.
And an ad.
Sit and spin!
For starters, this would be great for 3d miniature scenes or build a quick mockup using image-based-lighting by creating a latlong or vertical cross map. My "real" procedure involves shooting RAW via DSLR camera with a tele lens, a cumbersome chrome ball, and tripods.
I for one, see this as a welcoming "tool" than just a toy.
Exactly how many times would this be useful beyond the inital wow phase? When I think of panoramic pictures, I think of outdoor shots of mountain-scapes, beach scenes or sporting events and the like. Not exactly a lot of level smooth surfaces around those areas. Panoramic shots I've seen of indoor scenes tend to be full of the back of people in crowded spaces in which case the traditional gather round into a tight area for a photo op is preferred.
if I make a gimmick app?
This is a video of a guy talking about a video of a device.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
The iPhone has really become a brick, I can't stand the edges on it, and how thick and heavy it is. I much prefer the iPod design. I know the iPhone has some extra stuff and a bigger battery, but I would hardly use all that processing power and other stuff that drains it. I wish they would announce an iPhone Mini, go back to the 16:10 screen, and make it smaller and thinner.
Yeah, panorama is pretty much a fake (the built into ios6). Nobody can hold their arm/hand steady to even take a moving shot.
Shitty video stopped watching after 3 seconds.
Both the article and the app, shows there's more possibilities in ordinary/unexpected things. Excellent hack.
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
Can we have the old ./ back once SXSW is done? Will these Slashvertisement interviews be a daily feature or are you going to tone it back to say, once a week or two?
I don't think people would even really object as long as you clearly labeled them as such. As I said the other day (and I know you read it Rob because you responded to me) Reddit has their paid placements highlighted in blue.
So, how about it Rob? Or are we counting on the "undercover" nature of these Slashvertisements for SEO?
Actually, it (also?) works by using the vibration characteristics of the iPhone 5:
http://cycloramic.com/tutorial.html
It is still stupid and more of a party trick than anything else, but it doesn't require extra hardware.
I thought iPhones were supposed to have rounded corners. How can they stand on edge? /snark
You have some fundamental problem with vibration?
Jealous or what?
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
I have a couple of friends working at a company called "EyeSee360". They make pano mirrors ranging from a small optic that snaps onto your iPhone, to serious pro rigs that you can attach to 4K video cameras like Red's new offerings. Google them.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Looks to me like a person is holding it with their hand.
being able to have your iphone do a perfectly level 360* panorama without any extra equipment is pretty cool. Especially since it is doing a bunch of image processing to decide where to stop (it's not just running the motor until the compass has told it that it has turned around)
Bottles.
It's not a toy for spinning a phone. It's software that spins a phone without any additional hardware needed. And does something useful with it too, that couldn't be done without the software. You can't take a panorama of people sitting around a table, by the hand holding method. Nor feature the person that would be holding the phone.
For the moment we'll just have to envy iPhone owners
Nope. No, we won't.
By the way, I saw someone use this app months ago and thought it was sort of neat but also a great way to damage your iphone when it takes a tumble.
let them fondle their balls while they spasm with fanboi joy at this gimmick :P
Step 1: Obtain an iPhone.
Step 2: Get on a skydiving jump plane.
Step 3: At 10,000 feet hold camera out the door and yell at the pilot to do a 360! Continue to hold the camera being sure not to... whoops!
Step 4: Obtain a new iPhone. Go to step 2.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
The video only works with an iPhone 5. I know a lot of people upgrade religiously after drinking the kool-aid but not all iPhones out there are iPhone 5.
You didn't even read the summary? Really, you couldn't even read the summary before you made a comment?
This is the level of slashdot discussion around here? I mean maybe if there was some actual reading and thought involved. An insightful analysis perhaps, but no. instead we have some person just fucking commenting so they can vent their inadequacies regardless of what can be learned from reading a paragraph in 15 seconds.
How do these comment sections keep getting worse?
Taco does not play dice with the feed.
The iphone 5 won't even stand, yeah it takes pictures it vibrates and make your phone tirn around but let me know how to stand my IPhone 5 on the glass surface and balance itself so it won't fall
Actually, it does require extra hardware. Except on really incredibly smooth surfaces perhaps, most iPhone 5s will just vibrate without rotating. A tutorial explains that in order to get better results, you should stick a small bit of tape onto the bottom between the microphone and the lightning connector. So yes, it does require hardware: a bit of tape.
Except for that fact that at such short distances there will be a fair amount of distortion with the images not lining up, warping straight lines a bit like the bridges on Apple Maps. And people will move during the time in between shots, no matter how hard they try to remain still, resulting in extra, missing or at the very least warped body parts. But that happens with any other stitching panorama method too.
You have some fundamental problem with vibration?
Is this one of those "chipped teeth" jokes?
Thank you, Edward Snowden.
"Arguments from authority are worthless." —Carl Sagan
You didn't even read the summary? Really, you couldn't even read the summary before you made a comment?
This is the level of slashdot discussion around here? I mean maybe if there was some actual reading and thought involved. An insightful analysis perhaps, but no. instead we have some person just fucking commenting so they can vent their inadequacies regardless of what can be learned from reading a paragraph in 15 seconds.
How do these comment sections keep getting worse?
Like this.
Except for that fact that at such short distances there will be a fair amount of distortion with the images not lining up
The images don't have to line up. They only have to cover a reasonable overlap. It's the job of panorama software to work out how to stitch them together, and they do a good job. And a handheld panorama swipe will be much further out of true than this, which is guided by a flat surface.
And people will move during the time in between shots, no matter how hard they try to remain still, resulting in extra, missing or at the very least warped body parts.
That's true. But these days people enjoy photographic artefacts - it's the reason Instagram is so successful. e.g. Some people will deliberately move around the table so they feature in the panorama twice.
The images don't have to line up. They only have to cover a reasonable overlap. It's the job of panorama software to work out how to stitch them together, and they do a good job.
I tried it, and straight lines relatively close to the camera (a few meters) were warped badly. Edges and objects were often duplicated, torn and/or warped. It only becomes acceptable a bit further out. So if you let the phone rotate on a table, you are guaranteed to get artifacts around the edges of the table and any objects on it. But for an actual "panorama" (far away), it works really well.
I'd wager that the same effect could be gotten just with a manual spin onthat plastic stand by using the accelerometer to determine a suitable angular velocity for satisfactory quality capture. Then it could be implemented on aother handsets.
This obviously requires the most perfect conditions to do what this advertisement says it does. I tried it on every table in my home and all I did was shake loose some embedded dust and annoy the cat. The phone never moved.
That looks great, but it is a toy, rather than a tool. I can see it being used in vidoes though, just take a panoramic of everything form now on and than turn it into a vid....