Why follow the bouncing ball? Well, for starters, this particular ball may be following you. Designed by a team at the Technische Universität Berlin, the "Eye Ball"—as the clever editors at MITs Technology Review dubbed it—is tricked out with three dozen synchronized cell phone cameras, each snapping a single two-megapixel image coordinated by a sensor, which triggers when the ball is tossed in the air. The collective image, stitched together by computer, reveals the ultimate in panoramic views: 360 degrees spherical. Take that Google Street View...
Actually, this could be Google Street View 2.0. Somewhere between the Wow! and the vertigo is an innovation in search of a purpose and developers eager to license the technology.
Beyond Street View and other snoopy surveillance / reconnaissance applications, how could the Eye Ball be used? Any ideas?
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Not since the Cambrian explosion over a half billion years ago have eyes—this time in the form of cameras—triggered such a race to see-and-be-seen.
From Instagram to Gigapan, not only are we shooting more, but sharing more, too. (Carnegie Mellon's Gigapan project seems to have lost a bit of steam of over the last year, but the site is still a delight.)
It is no surprise that the olloclip, a clip-on suite of lenses for iPhone 4s, was one of Kickstarter's big success stories, raising more than 450% of its modest $15,000 fundraising goal in two months.
Kogeto, which raised $120,000 through Kickstarter and now is lining up $3 million in series A funding, offers a iPhone (and soon Android) lens attachment for shooting panoramic videos.
In a sense, this is biomimicry on a cultural level. "Eyes," notes biologist Richard Dawkins, "evolve at the drop of hat." And in this fascinating lecture from the 1991 Royal Institution series, Growing Up In the Universe, he brilliantly explains how:
— J. A. Ginsburg / @TrackerNews
News from the... / J.A. Ginsburg
