Prague from the TV Tower - 18 Gigapixel Panoramic Photo

http://www.360cities.net/prague-18-gigapixels

by dabent • 17 years ago

77 29 17 years ago

Pretty incredible stuff. I'm glad they didn't have the treasure hunt clues up yet or I probably wouldn't have lost the better part of my morning looking at this.

flipbrad• 17 years ago

very impressive! zero obfuscation though...

How long until technology gets to the point where this can all be done in real time, giving powers that be absolutely insane CCTV monitoring abilities?

jacobolus• 17 years ago

This resolution isn’t coming in real time any time soon (i.e. within the next 10 or 15 years), until we have cameras based on a different optical principle than a flat sensor with a set of glass lenses in front of it: Using the sizes of sensors we can currently manufacture for any reasonable kind of price, we can take a picture of this resolution with each exposure having about a maximum of about a 20 degree field of view. And since current sensors are not all that far off of saturating the detail that lenses can resolve, the only way to improve this will be either to make larger sensors, use arrays of cameras (or turn the cameras around very quickly), or use some other kind of optical system. In not too long, I suppose we might be able to capture data continuously, as a video, and then use software (computationally expensive fancy math) to increase the resolution beyond that in any particular frame. But that's still not going to get us close to 18 gigapixel spherical panoramas.

Semiapies3• 17 years ago

Especially considering something like this takes lots of time just to take the stills. (For instance, on the Dresden panorama linked elsewhere on this page, if you look along the bridge on the left side, you can see two different appearances by the same woman cycling.) Real-time at this quality is a very long way away.

mrduncan• 17 years ago

The additional details are pretty interesting also:

About: http://blog.360cities.net/the-largest-panorama-in-the-world/

How it was made: http://blog.360cities.net/prague-18-gigapixels-how-it-was-ma...

chanux• 17 years ago

26 GigaPixel image http://www.dresden-26-gigapixels.com/dresden26GP

thingie2• 17 years ago

Is there a reason why the panorama isn't joined cleanly at the closest zoom level? (Northeast direction, facing Vysočany.) I don't know how hard is it to make, though.

Titanous• 17 years ago

From the blog post, it looks like this could be done by anybody with a good SLR, lens, robot mount, and lots of time.

Also, let the "wtf am I looking at" hunt begin:

http://i.imgur.com/Ibmo5.jpg http://i.imgur.com/Tjxfd.jpg

2rs1• 17 years ago

http://www.imagebam.com/image/d30d0360346732

Semiapies3• 17 years ago

She's trying to tan and apparently really ambivalent about the height and weather?

KirinDave3• 17 years ago

A lot of "shock" photography is like that. I don't mean shock in the "shockumentary" sense but rather in the sense that you cannot easily reproduce the photograph without gear and access. HDRs are similar.

Sadly, shock photography does very well on the internets. Photos like this, while of value as reference and of some interest, are ultimately devoid of any artistic content and basically show off a process and a location, not a photographer's ability.

lutorm2• 17 years ago

I take pictures to "show off locations", not to toot my own horn...

Besides, taking these are not trivial, so it does show some "ability". It's difficult to get the lighting consistent, for example. But maybe you only value artistic ability?

lutorm2• 17 years ago

Actually, it's not that easy (to do well, at least).

18Gpix with a 9Mpix camera means 2000 exposures. Steady-state shooting rate for most digital cameras once the buffer is full is about 1 shot/s, so that means it would take at least half an hour. (And it's doubtful a robot mount could move that fast.)

During that time, the Sun will move significantly and unless you have a completely clear sky some clouds will likely move in front of the Sun. You'll never get a good stitch.

borism2• 17 years ago

simple:

many professional cameras (20+ mpix) used by many photographers to take pictures of their appropriate sections

jsankey• 17 years ago

The best part is that you don't have to look at the tower:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%BDi%C5%BEkov_Television_Tow...

A communist-era classic.

vidarh• 17 years ago

What? The TV tower is awesome. Especially the crawling baby sculptures..

borism2• 17 years ago

absolutely amazing! shame I haven't seen it before

jodrellblank• 17 years ago

It's rather nice, especially lit up at night: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2204/1526227926_8e51b8090a.jp...

nfnaaron• 17 years ago

The buildings are of remarkably uniform height. My guess is either limitation of building material at the time of greatest construction, or zoning ("cannot be higher than the church").

Even the modern buildings are mostly low.

sili• 17 years ago

At the same time each building is different in style, something that many US cities lack.

thingie2• 17 years ago

In the center. Outside? Not so much. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panelák :-)

cvg• 17 years ago

This could be a great tourism tool. "Hey check out our cool city and its architecture." Makes me want to visit Prague. Looks like a cool city.

There are a few other cities I would like to see this of.

eru• 17 years ago

Yes, if you are in Europe, you should go and visit Prague.

ricree• 17 years ago

Don't forget about google street view. It doesn't provide the nice bird's eye view that this does, but there is street level coverage of a good chunk of the city.

Jupe• 17 years ago

Very interesting. Did you notice the dupicate guy?

Look on the left of the circular park in the middle of the round about. The guy with the knapsack is duplicated.

KirinDave3• 17 years ago

There are a ton of stitching errors. I imagine the algorithm chosen was optimized for time, not for accuracy.

dfox• 17 years ago

I don't know, but it simply seems weird to see prague for this point. While my old office is almost across street from my home, it looks incredibly far on this photo.

Prague from the TV Tower - 18 Gigapixel Panoramic Photo

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