Panoramic Camera Ball: Catch It!

Posted on: 10-18-2011 by: Guest Author

If you already feel like an uncomfortable tourist whenever you carry your point-and-shoot, wait until you’re lugging around the brand new panoramic camera ball.

A team of graphic designers in Berlin created this funny-looking ball that you throw in the air to take a full 360-degree photo. If you’re wondering how this thing works, it’s so simple, you’d wonder why no one else has thought of it (actually, many claim it’s very unoriginal).

The designers took 36 2-megapixel cellphone cameras and evenly spaced them around the whole ball. Then they added an accelerometer, so the ball can automatically take the picture at the height of its toss. The ball is also padded because if you throw something up in the air, you don’t always catch it.

Watch the Panoramic Camera Ball In Action

While the idea of getting an amazing 360 panoramic view sounds cool in theory, it also seems a bit unnecessary and impractical. You basically get an image that resembles those from Google maps, replete with low quality and poorly patched together images.

This concept would definitely be better if the images were higher quality because currently you could easily take a bunch of high-quality photos with the new 8-megapixel iPhone 4S camera and then stitch them together for free.

If you’re already thinking about heading to your local store to pick up a panoramic camera ball, think again. Although they’ve made a prototype, the designers are still looking for funding to get this widely produced.

Perhaps the best-case scenario would be if the sports world picks this thing up. Imagine being able to stick these cameras in a basketball without compromising the ball’s construction.

I would much rather use the panoramic camera ball for sports than a way to look behind me as many sites have been suggesting. For that I just need to turn around.

Timothy Martinez Jr. is a freelance writer and blogs for a number of people, including a local Tuscon Bankruptcy Lawyer.