Panono: The Panoramic Ball Camera

Last summer I posted an article on the Squito, a throwable ball camera capable of capturing panoramic images and video. Now there’s a new ball camera in development with 36 fixed-focus cameras for capturing panoramas anywhere you can throw it.
Technically, the Panono isn’t exactly new. In development since 2011, it has evolved during that time into something that looks like a more sporty version of the thing that Luke Skywalker used during his first lightsaber practice.
Only the Panono won’t shoot you with a laser; it shoots the entire 360 x 360 (there’s an interesting spec!) scene with 72 megapixels of photo sensors. Visit the Panono Demo page to see the kind of image you can capture by tossing one of these devices up in the air. No more climbing up on a ladder or roof to capture a crowd like a wedding reception or class photo. Just stand in the middle of the the group and toss.
The Panono contains enough flash memory to hold 400 images and is connected to a cloud-based service for stitching the images together, and you can preview your shots immediately on an Android or iOS mobile device.
And you don’t have to throw it to use it. Attach it to a stick or string, or just hold the thing, though the latter approach will obviously black out part of the panorama.
Since it’s still in development, you can’t buy a Panono yet, but you can stake a claim to one by pledging $549 to the funding campaign that runs through Janury 4th, 2014 at Indiegogo.
Check out the video below to see the Panono in action.
This article was last modified on January 8, 2023
This article was first published on November 14, 2013
This is soo cool! It would make creating VR tours incredibly easy and so much faster. If you are looking to start creating VR panos or VR tours here’s a site with good tops vrtips.blogspot.com