360° images capture everything in every direction

More than just a picture, PANONO is a whole new experience offering a way to preserve your memories in their entirety, capturing all the people and everything else around you at that moment in time. It is also claimed to be the first panoramic image that can include people without ghosting issues. The throwable panoramic ball camera features a built-in accelerometer to measure the launch acceleration when it’s thrown up in the air to calculate when the ball will reach its apex. When at its highest point (and therefore has least motion) all of the 36 fixed-focus cameras fire at the same time to take a 108 megapixel, high-resolution full-spherical image. Don’t worry if you don’t catch it, as the casing is made of tough plastic to withstand falls to the ground from up to 5m (15ft). Another first, PANONO is believed to be the first consumer camera to exceed 100 megapixels. PANONO has raised more than $1.25m (USD) thanks to a crowd-funding campaign.

Jonas Pfeil, President and Co-founder, PANONO and creator of the camera, commented: “Until now, it’s been impossible to take good panoramic shots with people in them because people move in between shots and cause ghosting. Since all of PANONO’s 36 cameras fire at once in every direction, it captures an instant in time that includes everyone - even the photographer - in a blur-free panoramic image. With the PANONO, taking panoramic pictures becomes an all-inclusive, fun new social experience and a way to capture quite literally all the details of the moment. We’re breaking new ground with the PANONO Camera and are grateful to the more than 2,000 people who already ordered the camera through our Indiegogo campaign. It’s thanks to their enthusiasm that we’re already able to upgrade the optics and break the 100 megapixel barrier in consumer cameras. There’s still time for others to jump in on the opportunity to be among the first to own the first ever 108 megapixel consumer camera.”

The development of this camera began as part of Jonas Pfeil’s Master’s Thesis in Computer Engineering at the Technical University of Berlin. He presented a prototype of the ball camera in 2011 to tremendous acclaim: his YouTube video demo received more than 3m hits. Jonas therefore co-founded PANONO with classmates Björn Bollensdorff and Qian Qin to refine the throwable panoramic ball camera and bring it to market.

Zurich-based, Art of Technology (AOtag) conducted feasibility studies to verify the simultaneous high speed image-data recording from the 36 cameras. It has remained on board with the project, and is now providing on-going support to Panono during the industrialisation process. AOtag are responsible for the re-design of the hardware and part of the software to enable reliable cost-effective, high volume production.

"PANONO actually deserves the description as revolutionary: it is something entirely new that literally adds a new dimension - 360x360°- to photographic images and will let us save our memories like never before, not to mention have fun capturing them,” comments Ralf Coenen, Former COO and Member of the Board, Leica Camera, and Former Head of the Camera Lens Division, Carl Zeiss, who is working with PANONO.

With upgraded optics and higher resolution, consumers will be able to zoom in to see even greater detail when they view their PANONO panoramic images on their computer or mobile devices. Viewing panoramas on a mobile device is a fully immersive experience with the free PANONO App. The viewer seemingly moves through images just by tilting their device up or down, left or right, as if inside the image. Weighing only 300g (0.66lbs) and approximately the size and shape of a small grapefruit, PANONO naturally invites people to throw it into the air snapping photos. However, it can also be used as a hand-held camera or on a pole. The exterior casing is made out of a tough clear plastic that reveals the 36 cameras inside and the camera battery recharges through a USB port.

PANONO’s images download wirelessly to a free PANONO mobile app and can be viewed on a smartphone or tablet by pointing the device in any direction you want to look. You can also pinch or expand the image to explore more detail and find things the photographer might not even have noticed when taking the shot. You can also share your panoramas online, on social media and in the Panono app. The app is free to download from the Android Marketplace or the App Store. PANONO images can also be viewed in a web browser just like Google Street View and with the upgraded optics, details such as the writing on signs, facial expressions, or small items on the ground will be very sharp in both viewing experiences.

Visit AOtag at embedded world 2014 in Hall 2, Stand 328.