Gigapanography – Virtual Tours – Object Movies

McLaren Photographic uses Epic Pro Robot Systems for Spectacular Gigapanography or Panoramas in HDR (High Dynamic Range) and is one of the few specialists using gigapanography in the Chicagoland region. Gigapans are gigapixel panoramas, digital images with billions of pixels. They are huge panoramas with fascinating detail, all captured in the context of a single brilliant photo. Phenomenally large, yet remarkably crisp and vivid, gigapans are available to be explored at http://gigapan.com/. Gigapans have been popular for special events, sports, nature and cityscapes.  However, the technology has many useful commercial applications – showcase your operation, provide virtual tour, educate your viewer in a unique and engaging way.

Gigapanography or the GigaPan is a robotic unit that mounts digital cameras and guides the users through setting up a panoramic scene. By automating the image acquisition process, the computer precisely takes individual pictures across a grid. These images are downloaded to a computer and then stitched, rendered and combined into a single super-panorama image. These are massive gigapixel (thus gigapan) – sized images that can be uploaded to your website. The technology relies on an image pyramid-tiling scheme that enables user interactions to occur in a dynamically resolving image space similar to Google Earth. When interacting with the final composite image, the user can view the entire panoramic or macro panoramic scene then zoom into the tiniest details in full resolution. A full panorama can be seen at the Gigapan site for the 14th green at the BMW Championship; a composite stitch of 844 full-sized images taken on September 18th, 2011 from 11:07 am to 12:21 pm using a Canon 7D DSLR camera.  Click on the image below, for a 3D rendering of the Missile Gallery at the Wright Paterson AFB at Dayton Ohio done with Microsoft Photosynth. Activate the image of the Missile and Space Gallery (below) to view a 360 QTVR.