Posted 09.30.2009 at 2:50 pm
9 Comments
Open Source Portable Panorama
Roy D. Ragsdale
Google is reported to have spent millions of dollars on its Street View project. Roy Ragsdale, a student at West Point, has done a pretty nice job of putting together a portable panorama camera setup that includes GPS and Google Earth file output for under $300, using exclusively open source tools.
Anyone who has ever tried to combine open source software with off-the-shelf hardware knows that a lot of challenges can arise. Does my version of Linux have drivers for this USB camera chipset? Can I use the video camera with software that expects still images? Can my Linux box talk to this GPS receiver? Roy has done the heavy lifting by determining a valid combination of hardware and software to achieve a successful panorama. I find it kind of ironic that Roy envisioned this sort of first-person perspective device to be used in combat, while I see it being ideal to be used in protests. In either case, it fits the purpose of his class, which is called "disruptive technologies."
Hardware:
-
8 cheap webcams ($23.50)
1 affordable GPS ($37)
2 D-Link USB hubs ($17)
Software:
This list shows not only the software that was used to capture the images from the webcams, but also the data flow from beginning to end. Roy needed to make some changes to luvcview to pull still images while in video mode. He also had a Python script that was collecting the images from each camera and writing them to a file. It would be nice to see his code.
- UVC driver - USB Video Class driver for Linux
- luvcview - tweaked it, to get still images from video
- custom python script to capture 8 JPEG images (takes 8 seconds)
- exiftool - inject date/time into JPEG images
- gpicsync - latitude/longitude from a GPS receiver, add coordinate data to image metadata
- autopano-sift - identifies common images then aligns on a horizon
- hugin - stitches images together
- gpicsync - GPS tag panorama and generate google earth file
- PTviewer - view panoramic images
Despite Roy not making his Python script and patches available, he did a great job of describing his setup. I expect to see a lot more DIY open source panorama setups in the near future, as Mr. Ragsdale tries to shrink his design down to the point where it can be worn in a headband.
[via IEEE Spectrum]
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This is amazing work for an undergraduate student, especially when you consider all the stuff that West Point cadets must do outside of the classroom.
By now this kid is probably an Army officer. I hope they can find a way to take full advantage of his talents.
I can't think of any reason why he would not make his python scripts available - especially when you see how much he seemed to have embraced open source apps. If he sees this comment he might consider hanging his scripts on a publically accessible website.
Great tool for real estate agents creating virtual tours of their communities. Current virtual tours can be found at www.virtualhomes.com
Wow this is pretty amazing! I am sure the kid is going very well for himself. I am a Realtor and this would really come in handy. Virtual tours and of course the Google street view have become really popular with consumers who are trying to decide on a town and a neighborhood. I know when I am selling Franklin MA Real Estate having something like this to distinguish my marketing efforts would be fantastic! Even better would be having a download onto my website at www.sellmyhomeinmetrowestma.com
This has got my brain spinning right now with possibilities. I've been looking for something to do to separate my web site from the competition at
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I dont get this, and Im sorry for that but what use is this except to record as you drive from place to place. Which you can do with a simple cam and the time to actually record it.
usually people dont come right out and say this about the things they see, so Im the dumb one here I guess. But I am reallyat a loss for any use beyond Real Estate. However I can think of a few things RE marketers can do with it. It would very much make a virtual tour that much better. Or is that the only use?
This has got my brain spinning right now with possibilities. I've been looking for something to do to separate my web site from the competition at http://www.kranik.kiev.ua/
This is Something Amazing done by Roy.. Even i have done some DIY experiments during my undergraduate and hmm.. i really liked to work on the PCB's.... Well the Scripts were to be completed Roy.. No probs.. Great work Carry ahead..
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