‘Gigapan’ Panoramic Photo System Used By Sky In Latest Promotion

What with the recent flurry of interest in the photography of our towns and cities since Google Streetview went live in the UK, now is perhaps an appropriate time for Sky to be using this kind of thing in its latest promotional campaign for their Sky Movies April action season.

Sky are using a system known as “Gigapan Photographic Technology” (the same system that was used to cover President Obama’s inauguration) in their latest promotion which consists of three distinct developments to create a very high resolution panoramic view of London’s South Bank incorporating a few famous action movie heroes out and about:

• Robotic Camera Mount – for capturing very high resolution (gigapixel or more) panoramic images using a digital camera.
• Custom Panoramic Photo Software – is required to construct these gigapixel image panoramas.
• Specific Website Delivery System – which gives a method of exploring, sharing and commenting on these large panoramic images.

You can go and take a look at the panoramic photo result for yourself over at Sky’s “Where’s Willis?” webpage – see how many action movie heroes you can spot – for instance, check out the Terminator having an ice cream!

What do you think to this implementation of technology; does it work well for you? Clearly it’s different from Google Street View, taking a wider shot and ultimately less detail up close, but it’s clearly an interesting thing to look at and is certainly different to used in a “Where’s Wally” kind of marketing promotion – and when it comes to advertising, something different is always welcome!

I’m someone who has never really looked into panoramic images before, although that said, I’ve not done much more than basic photography and storage of my photos – ie. occasionally post them online, but mainly just keep them on my main desktop computer and sometimes show them to friends/family at home. I suppose by Sky doing this, it reminds me that there are many more uses and possibilities out there for using your digital photos. Perhaps when I ‘get more serious’ about my photography and get a decent camera I’ll want to do more with the higher quality photos.

Have any of you ever created panoramic photos with your digital cameras and then stitched them together on your computer? What system did you use and were you happy with the results?

Related Pages:

1. PoGo Instant Photo Printer – In Your Pocket!
2. CIBOX C107 Digital Photo Frame Review
3. Tao Digital Photo Keyring
4. CIBOX C107 Digital Photo Frame Competition
5. Windows Live Essentials Review: Photo Gallery

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