The microelectronic revolution that started in Silicon Valley has completely revolutionized photography.

Pocketable digital cameras are barely larger than a roll of film used by the cameras they replaced.   The revolution extends past the camera to the processing of photographs after they have been taken as well.  Modern software gives even neophyte photographers with a home computer far more control than their predecessors had in a well-equipped wet darkroom.

This project hopes to entice the casual photographer to venture into a domain formerly occupied by only the most dedicated of advanced photographers.  Most people who take simple snapshots are unaware that if you take a number of pictures from the same spot, you can use software to create pictures that do a far better job of capturing the "essence" of the location. 

Have you ever tried to create a panorama on a bulletin board by pinning up overlapping snapshots?  This project will show you why that didn't work...   and we'll teach you how to do it successfully with software.

This project endeavors to show how to create panoramic pictures in software.  Both open-source, free software and commercial software can be used.  In Second Life, the avitar's built-in snapshot function can be as a virtual camera. 

We also propose an overview of a design for an automated kiosk that could be built for the exhibit space in The Tech in the real world that would illustrate these concepts.

The primary components of the project are:

The Reprojecting San Jose exhibit in Parkside Hall in The Tech Virtual.

This exhibit contains sample panoramas from snapshots taken in both Second Life and real life.  It also offers a presentation on what the process of generating a panorama does to the snapshot images themselves.

The SL Panorama Kit

The kit is a collection of objects that enable you to create panoramic images.  The SL Panorama kit is available free from the exhibit.  It contains:

• The PanoHUD - an object that attaches to a Second Life avitar that makes taking the snapshots for a 360-degree panorama quick and simple.
• How-To: Panoramic Photography in Second Life - Simple instructions for using the PanoHUD to take panoramic pictures.
• How-To: Panoramic Photography in Real Life - Simple instructions on how to use a simple point-and-shoot digital camera to take panoramic pictures.
• How-To: Panorama Processing - Information on how to turn your snapshots into panoramas.
• How-To: Polar Projections - Information on how to turn your panoramas into pictures of miniature worlds.
• More Reprojection - Links to other image reprojection topics.

The Real World Exhibit Description

An overview of an automated exhibit for The Tech in the real world that illustrates these concepts and lets visitors to TheTech create panoramic images of themselves and their group that they can see on The Tech's website when they return home.