Gigapan Curriculum Collection

Gigapan and Carnegie Mellon University's CREATE Lab (Community Robotics, Education and Technology Empowerment Lab), have teamed up to develop and share the Gigapan Curriculum Collection. 

The Curriculum Collection highlights the many Gigapan projects that have been done around the world over the past several years. It is designed to make Gigapan technology accessible to all teachers and students, allowing instructors to adapt it into their classrooms, incorporate it into larger projects, or use it to enhance existing curriculum. Over 6,000 students are trained worldwide in almost 300 schools or other organizations, helping Gigapan to develop curriculum for kindergarten to post-college levels, with topics ranging from natural sciences and architecture, to creative writing and mathematics. 

Visit the CREATE Lab blog to read more about how the collection was developed and feedback from other educators. If you have any comments, questions, feedback or ways we can further enhance project development and design, please email gigapan@cmucreatelab.org.

Gigapan Update

As many of you are aware, there have been some significant changes at Gigapan over the past several months. We appreciate the support many of you have shown and want to keep you updated on what the future holds, as well as address some of the concerns and questions you may be experiencing.

Gigapan has gone through a significant restructure and will continue to rebuild and strengthen the company. During this process, we’ve refocused our efforts on improving existing hardware, developing new hardware and software, and creating some additional digital products and services.

We have fielded several questions regarding the website and what will happen with Gigapan member images. The website will continue to exist and every member will still be able to upload, view, snapshot, comment, print and embed their images. We will also continue to focus on the development and user experience of the website over the next six months.

We are also aware of a few glitches and bugs on the website. We are working towards fixing these issues and appreciate you bringing them to our attention. Please keep in mind, Gigapan has limited development staff and these changes will take time.

We appreciate your patience and loyalty as we work towards restoring Gigapan as a leader in gigapixel community. We remain committed to supporting our existing hardware and website users and if you have any specific questions, please feel free to email us directly at customerservice@gigapan.com.

-Team Gigapan

Lewis Canyon Petroglyph Site – Gigapan Images

Reprinted: SHUMLA . Lewis Canyon Petroglyph Site – Gigapan Images. Past Horizons. August 22, 2013, from http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/08/2013/lewis-canyon-petroglyph-site-gigapan-images

Extreme polecam, Copyright (c) Mark Willis and The Shumla School, Inc. 2013.

Lewis Canyon Petroglyph Site is located in the Lower Pecos Region of Texas and situated on a near flat stretch of limestone bedrock adjacent to a steep walled canyon. Hundreds or maybe thousands of prehistoric petroglyphs were carved into the rock in this area. 

Creating a map of the site

Some of the designs appear to resemble atl atls (a dart throwing weapon), human-like figures, animals and animal tracks but the most common elements are abstract circles, lines, and dots.

A revolutionary technique was used to map the area so it can be seen as a single Gigapan image, which can be zoomed into at incredible detail.

A group of five archaeologists walked a series of transects holding a Canon digital SLR camera on the end of a painter’s pole, taking photos straight down at about every 2.5 metres across the entire site. The surface is more than 175 metres (~600 feet) east/west by 160 metres north/south (~525 feet). A total of 2,400 images were used to create this mosaic.

On closer inspection, the viewer will note the eastern half of the site was photographed at dusk on one day and the western half after dawn on the next day. This was done to capture the petroglyphs with the strongest shadows possible and from the best angle that the two sides of the site required.

A huge single image

All of the photographs were then processed as a mosaic image using an advanced photogrammetric technique and exported into GIS software and geo-corrected. The data was further enhanced and turned into a huge single image 135 gigabytes in size. This was down sampled so that there is a single pixel in the Gigapan for every millimetre of ground surface. The resulting image was then uploaded to Gigapan.com for others to examine.

Archaeologists have been drawn to the site since it was discovered. A number of well-known rock art researchers, artists and archaeologists have studied the petroglyphs including Forrest Kirkland, A.T. Jackson, Solveig Turpin, and Jim Zintgraff.  The new researchers hope this digital documentation will help others better understand this amazing resource.

Some of hundreds of petroglyphs and geoglyphs covering the survey area.survey area. Copyright (c) Mark Willis and The Shumla School, Inc. 2013.

Extreme pole aerial photography

View the Gigapan image here: http://www.gigapan.com/gigapans/136529

Once opened, click on the “Snap Shot” icon on the lower left, it will open a strip of images along the bottom. If you double click on a image it will zoom to that spot.

Extreme polecam, with 2400 images covering the survey area. Copyright (c) Mark Willis and The Shumla School, Inc. 2013.

If you would like to learn more about this site or visit it, the Rock Art Foundation can help: www.rockart.org.

Copyright (c) Mark Willis and The Shumla School, Inc. 2013. All rights reserved. No part of this information and imagery may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of Mark Willis or Shumla.

Source: SHUMLA and Mark Willis

Duke University’s Aware Camera at America’s Cup

by guest contributor David Brady, Duke University

For the first time in the history of the America's Cup, this year's races in San Francisco were held in a natural amphitheater observed along the shore. Spectators along the waterfront got real-time race data on smartphone apps while television broadcasts overlaid boat track, speed and separation along with wind and tide direction. Along with revolutionary boats and dramatic narratives, the races of the 34th America's Cup provided an excellent opportunity for computationally enhanced and interactive media. Such a dramatic event taking place on such a large scale was a natural target for panoramic photography. 

Duke University’s Imaging and Spectroscopy Program (DISP), with support from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, builds compact, wide field of view, high-resolution cameras ideal for the capture of events such as the America’s Cup. In contrast with traditional, scanned panoramas, DISP's Aware cameras take instantaneous snapshots of the full field of view. DISP currently has two such cameras, named Blue Devil and Wild Cat based on the Aware 2 design. Blue Devil uses 96 14-megapixel micro-cameras to produce 700 megapixel images over a 120 degree by 50 degree field of view. Wild Cat uses 30 micro-cameras to produce 200-250 megapixel images. DISP, and DISP spinoff Aqueti, have numerous next generation panoramic cameras in fabrication, including Triton, a 3-gigapixel snapshot camera, and the Aqueti qG, a tripod-mountable, 250 megapixel camera.

With support from Gigapan, DISP had already used Aware 2 cameras to capture and distribute high definition snapshots. We used Gigapan Tag with Blue Devil to produce a taggable photo of Duke's 2013 graduation ceremony. Between Blue Devil and Wild Cat, we captured over 400 snapshots at that event. Unfortunately, fully automated panorama production is not yet producing satisfactory results. Most DISP images posted on Gigapan are optimized using Kolor's Autopano Giga, which we used with Wild Cat to produce high definition snapshots at recent Durham Bulls and Duke Blue Devil games. The Aware cameras are computational imagers, ultimately requiring full camera operating systems with advanced exposure and focus control, novel image data formats, and sophisticated image formation and display strategies. As we continue to develop Aware software and hardware, event capture has been helpful in defining essential specifications and operational challenges and opportunities.

After months of testing and activity, and rather than waiting for Triton or qG, DISP went to the America's Cup with the camera on hand. Although somewhat challenging with Wild Cat and Blue Devil as prototype cameras in large boxes, races 6 through 10 of the 34th America's Cup were the most exciting shooting campaign to date for the DISP Aware team.

Shipped from North Carolina to San Francisco, DISP rented a big truck to haul Wild Cat around. Here are DISP's staff photographer, Jack Anderson, and the Aware project manager, Steve Feller, with Wild Cat on the truck:



The America's Cup Event Authority generously supported DISP with media passes and site support for the campaign. While we were familiar with the AC72's and had seen them cruising the bay on television, nothing could match the seeing them from the staging area off of Pier 23:

We took our first snapshots of these boats up close on the morning of Thursday, September 10:
Ready to Rumble

Later that afternoon, with the assistance of America's Cup SUVs and golf carts, we staged Wild Cat at the Golden Gate Yacht Club and observed races 6 and 7 looking toward the Golden Gate Bridge:
Race 7 of the 34th America's Cup


Friday, September 13 was not a racing day, so we spent time wandering around America's Cup Park and shooting self portraits. We were surprised to find an interesting snapshot in this one:
Bare Foot Guy Working High Above Athena


We deployed the truck in the tailgate region of America’s Cup Village at Marina Green for races 8 and 9 on Saturday, September 14:

This vantage point gave us a clear view of the race course over the yacht clubs and across the spit that we affectionately named Kiwi Point:
Kiwi Point

The image across Kiwi point was our favorite of the campaign, coming in race 8. Race 9 was cancelled midway through after winds exceeded threshold. We got a reasonable shot of the crowd at Marina Green leaving when the cancellation was announced.
Leaving the Cup After the Race

We loved shooting the races at the Golden Gate Yacht Club and at Marina Green, but our friends at the America's Cup let us know that they had enough pictures of boats. We feel, of course, that our shots of the AC72's in the context of the full fleet in the Bay and the crowd along the shore give unique opportunities to explore the full scene but we agreed that on Sunday, September 15 we would shoot pictures of the crowd at Marina Green rather than the race. Once we had deployed Wild Cat on Kiwi Point we had trouble explaining to spectators why we chose to point the camera the wrong way. We decorated Wild Cat with both flags to remain politically unbiased. 

The range from Kiwi Point to the stands is a bit far for Wild Cat’s 115mm focal length equivalent, but we hope that the folks on the shore can at least recognize themselves:
America's Cup Crowd

We also experimented with Gigapan Tag with these images, as seen here. 

Our goal at the America's Cup was to capture as many images as we could and put them online as quickly as possible. With the use of the America's Cup Media Center for image processing and the efficient Gigapan Upload utility, we were able to capture several hundred images each day, scan for our favorites and post several of our choosing. In the end, we posted 26 images. Each image requires 15-30 minutes of processing time, with much still to learn about optimal processing.

While we are developing real-time processing systems, images posted from the America's Cup use Matlab image processing scripts and Autopano Giga for stitching. The processing scripts are still quite rudimentary; the posted images are formed from nearly raw sensor data. With a goal of posting images within ten minutes, we were unable to achieve as much quality as we can with further processing. We learned a lot about how to make our images better. In analyzing the Kiwi Point image, for example, we found that edge aware demosaicing (below right) outperforms bilinear demosiacing (below left):


We also learned that we could substantially improve our images with more advanced denoising and color processing, as shown in this comparison of one of the Marina Green crowd shots after Photoshop processing:  

While improved image processing is an easy fix for Aware images, the most significant artifacts in our America's Cup images arise from differences in exposure and focus across the micro-camera array. The capacity to independently manage exposure and focus is, of course, a central advantage of the multiscale architecture. Management of this advantage is, conversely, a serious challenge. With more time to control contributions from diverse micro-cameras, we are providing (below) a better focused version of the Kiwi Point data. The colors are also richer, although nonuniformity in the stitching of the sky shows why we cropped it in the fast stitch version.
Kiwi Point Once Again

We thank the America's Cup and Gigapan for helping us get through this experiment. While our images are not perfect, they are the only zoomable, multi-scale images that will ever exist for this America's Cup. We look forward to taking the lessons learned from this experience in building gigapixel snapshots of future critical moments in time. 

Gigapans of New Student Orientations and Convocations

Several universities and colleges capture their freshman classes and new student orientations using Gigapan  technology. Students have been photographed in many interesting ways, from filling the bleachers to standing in formation of their graduating year. Now students can zoom in, find themselves, and commemorate a historic time in their lives.

Check out a few examples from the following universities:

Rutgers University

Radford University

Vanderbilt University

Did you know Gigapan offers Education and Research Incentive discounts? For qualified applicants, Gigapan will offer the opportunity to purchase a Gigapan EPIC or EPIC 100 with a discount of 20% off the listed price. To learn more about how you can apply for the Gigapan Education and Research Incentive, please contact us.

Tips and Tricks

One of my primary jobs at Gigapan is to educate photographers on the art of shooting gigapans. I’ve gathered several tips and tricks over the years and love to share them when training a new user, conducting a workshop, or presenting a webinar. I thought I would share some of these tricks with our blog readers as well.

These tricks are pretty simple while others are a little more technical, but all of them help ensure better final Gigapan images whether you’re new to gigapixel imagery or an old pro.

Set the Correct Field of View (FOV) 

If set incorrectly, there are a few things you will experience. The most common is what I call window panes.Window panes are black vertical bars you get in between the columns that appear in your chosen stitch software, and usually results from having a larger field of view than the lens you are using. This may seem pretty simple, but even experienced Gigapan users make this mistake (including myself!). On a recent trip to New York, I was fortunate enough to have access to an unobstructed rooftop, but forgot to set my FOV correctly. My EPIC Pro was set to a 25 degree FOV (50mm equivalent) but it should have been set to a 13mm FOV (100mm equivalent). Everything looked fine while shooting, but when I went to stitch, nothing lined up and it looked like a Picasso painting. Luckily, I will be able to go back up to the roof when I return in August to get it right.

Here are a few FOV’s for common lens focal lengths to help you make sure you are set up correctly. (Please keep in mind that these numbers are based on the EPIC Pro, a full frame DSLR and may differ from your set up by 0.2-0.4 degrees)

i.  50mm = 25.0 degrees

ii. 70mm = 20.0 degrees
iii. 100mm = 13.0 degrees
iv. 135mm = 8.2 degrees degrees
v.  150mm = 7.4 degrees
vi.  200mm = 6.5 degrees
vii. 300mm = 4.5 degrees

Setting Pre-trigger Delay

Minimize as much movement as possible when shooting long exposures. Pre-trigger delay gives the EPIC Pro additional time to settle between movements to each location. The default is set to 0.5 seconds, but I like to set mine to about 1.5 seconds when I do long exposures. This will give the EPIC Pro more time to get a clear image at each location. This will vary depending on the strength of any wind you experience, as well as the weight of your camera and lens combination.

Enable Mirror Lockup

Mirror Lockup is another way to make sure you eliminate excessive shake. To do this, enable Mirror Lockup on your camera. Then, on the EPIC Pro, go to Options > Mirror Lockup and turn it on. There is another option for this with Canon cameras in Liveview. If you put the camera in Liveview mode and enable Mirror Lockup, it will flip the mirror up at the beginning of the pano and leave it up the entire time. If you decide to go this path, you do not need to turn on Mirror Lockup on the Pro.

Use External Applications

I prefer to switch to manual shutter mode and use an accelerometer app when shooting. Accelerometers are a great way to see the vibration and movement of your EPIC Pro. There are several free accelerometer apps for the Android and iOS phones. I personally have used two for my android: AcMeter and Accelerometer Meter. I find myself using AcMeter more frequently because it offers Point, Graph and Speed options. iOS offers AccelMeter, 3D Accelerometer, XYZ Tools and Sensor Kinetics. I tested all of them and found Sensor Kinetics to be very robust and useful. Once you download the app to your phone, launch the app and place the phone on the Pro. When the Accelerometer shows a flat line or stability, trigger the shutter with your remote trigger cable. Once the image is taken, press OK on the Pro to move to the next position.

Image Review

Most of you are familiar with image review. You take a photo and it displays on the back LCD for usually 2-6 seconds. It’s a great tool when shooting single images to see if you captured what you wanted with the right exposure. Unfortunately, it can also ruin your panoramic images. How, you ask? Allow me to explain: The EPIC Pro triggers the camera to fire the shutter. If the camera is busy at that time, for example reviewing a previous image, then the shutter will not fire, causing you to miss the current image locations in the pano. If you are not paying attention this won’t be known until you go to stitch. Often times at that point, it’s too late to return and reshoot. The solution is to simply turn off Image Review to avoid this small but important adjustment. 

My hope is that you find these little gems of advice to keep in your pocket and lend to greater success when you take panoramic images. If I could leave you one final piece of advice, it would be this. Slow down, breathe, double check your settings on both your camera and the EPIC Pro and enjoy the process. We are photographers because we love to capture the beauty in life. We are masters at freezing time for others to view forever. 

Gigapan Launches New Membership Services

Gigapan is happy to present exciting new changes to Membership! We have created an accessible way for all types of Gigapan users to network, grow their business, participate in monetization opportunities, expand their audience and continue to discover remarkable HD imagery from every corner of the globe and discipline.

By introducing a set of tiered membership levels, we have provided everyone from enthusiasts to professionals access to better functionality and added opportunities, helping our users expand their global reach. Members can now choose which level best fits their needs: Basic, Premier, Elite or Enterprise. We started by adding new features to Basic Membership, and added even more inspiring features at the paid levels.

As an existing Basic member, you will continue to enjoy all of the benefits you have always had. All you need to do is sign in to explore the new features and layout. All of your existing information and images remain the same.

If you are new to Membership and thinking about signing up, check out the details and learn more at gigapan.com/signup. Joining is simple and if you are upgrading to a new level, all your images and content will follow you.

BASIC Free
Foundational access to Gigapan functionality, including:

• A customizable profile page

• Print monetization (25% revenue share after costs)

• Unlimited uploads, galleries and storage, and no limits to traffic for your images

PREMIER $25/month
Includes all the functionality of Basic, with added features including:

• Tools that help you organize your work

• Generate more revenue on prints (100% revenue share after costs)

• Promote yourself or your business

ELITE $100/month
Provides added features for the professional and prosumer member, including:

• Print monetization, 100% revenue share after costs

• Discounts on digital products and hardware

• Enhanced promotional tools including a searchable for-hire badge

• Access to contribute on the Gigapan blog as a quarterly contributor

Enterprise $1000/month
Offers the most comprehensive organizational tools including:

• Customizable account handling and access for teams

• Special pricing for unlimited digital products

• Generate more revenue on prints (100% revenue share after costs)
• Personalized service and support

Not only have we added new membership levels, but we’ve also done some housekeeping to the structure of membership. Based on research, design and feedback, a new layout has been created. Here is a walk-through of those changes:

My Gigapan

Once you sign in, you will always be able to return to your portfolio by clicking on “My Gigapan”, which automatically routes you to your entire image archive, with personal galleries, favorites and snapshots in one central location.

Community

To keep our members connected, we’ve created an epicenter of network activity. This is where you will be able to keep track of Groups you’ve joined, Forum posts you’ve recently written, retrieve and send messages, and access the Gigapan Directory.

Portfolio

We have renamed the Images section to Portfolio, a central location to view and organize every one of your images.

Profile

Your profile is your presentation to the world, so we’ve given you more opportunities to customize this page. Previously, this is where you were directed when you clicked on your username. It is now the central place to create and share your identity, and it is the only public section of your account that anyone can view. You can choose a specific name or business under which you are known, versus being presented purely as your username. In addition, you can curate the images, galleries, snapshots and favorites that you wish your audience to see, along with a list of the gear you use.

For Premier and Elite members, the ability to market oneself as “For Hire” is available in this area as well. This feature integrates into the Directory to highlight a member’s availability and is searchable

Account

This newly added section provides a dedicated space for personal settings, retrieving and changing your password, updating your email address, setting your email preferences, entering your shipping and billing address, setting print monetization on or off, and access to digital products.

For Premier and Elite members, we’ve included a feature called Projects, giving users the structure to create sets of images that allow them to keep track of a more complex workflow.

For Enterprise users, a special section is provided called Team, within which an administrator in an organization can manage the people in their company that they’ve assigned to a Gigapan job. The ability to assign roles, limit or open up access to those team members, invite and search for photographers, and collaborate in a common workspace, is part of the added value to this highest level of membership.

Print Monetization

All members also now have the opportunity to make money by allowing people to print their images. In this new structure, a member can easily set his or her retail price as desired, or leave retail prices as is, while still benefitting and making money. Basic members will receive a 25% revenue share of the retail price above Gigapan costs, while Premier, Elite and Enterprise members will keep 100% of the revenue share above Gigapan costs.

We are excited to present this new membership structure to the world. We look forward to your feedback and are thrilled to welcome you and new members to the expanded Gigapan family.

For more information about the new membership features and details, visit the Gigapan Membership FAQ and our press release.