Build a Google-style panorama rig for $300
>> Wednesday, September 30, 2009
As part of a “disruptive technologies” course at the United States Military Academy, [Roy D. Ragsdale] produced a working prototype of a Google Street View-like system called PhotoTrail. Like its corporate-backed inspiration, the system captures georeferenced 360-degree panoramas that can be viewed interactively in a web browser…but at a hardware cost of only around $300. [Ragsdale’s] prototype is based entirely on consumer-grade off-the-shelf components and open source software, all tied together by the yin and yang of DIY: foam core board and a few Python scripts.
This article from IEEE Spectrum magazine provides some background on the selection of parts and construction of the system, including a hardware shopping list and a list of links to all of the open source packages used.
The PhotoTrail prototype is surprisingly small and lightweight. A vehicle isn’t even required; the camera array can be carried overhead by a single person, making it possible to capture remote locations. But [Roy] expects future revisions to be even smaller and less obtrusive, perhaps mounted to a headband. Mount Everest awaits!
1 komentar:
Would have been more interesting to read that the laptop drove the mower, and how. Then again my guess the man isn’t going release too many details to potential competition. Tough it wouldn’t be very tough to figure out how to do this manually following a computer display or the display of a GPS unit that has a track entered into it. And to think in th old days they had to actually lay out the maize on the ground, plant trees and wait until the trees are tall enough to be effective. Today it can be done in one seasion, with a new maize maze every year.
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