“Having access to such high-resolution images changes scientists’ relationships to images and the information they contain,” said Carnegie Mellon University robotics scientist Illah Nourbaksh, one of GigaPan’s inventors and an organizer of conference.

Created in 2006 by Carnegie Mellon and NASA, the GigaPan robotic camera mount can shoot hundreds of perfectly aligned images using almost any digital camera. After the photographer uploads the photos to a computer, photo-stitching software seamlessly merges them into a single, highly zoomable image.

Since 2007, Nourbaksh and others have trained 120 scientists to use the system. “There are 8,000 GigaPans out there just by scientists, and that’s growing every day as more of them use it,” Nourbaksh said.

From microbes on a barnacle to a landscape coated with penguins, explore the winning scientist-photographer entries, plus a sneak preview of zoomable, gigapixel-sized time-lapse videos.

Petroglyph Cliff

The Eagle’s Nest cliff face near Jubbah in northern Saudi Arabia is covered with ancient petroglyphs.

The Saudi government is extremely protective of the site, Nourbaksh said, but allowed renowned photographer Richard T. Bryant to capture the scene in a 3.3-gigabyte, 1.11-gigapixel panorama made of 176 individual photos.

“The prince of Saudi Arabia agreed to let him in and photograph the rock etchings. Now any scientist can look at this site in extreme detail,” Nourbaksh said.

Credit: GigaPan/Richard T. Bryant

Authors: Dave Mosher

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