While it looks a bit more like a cyborg jelly fish, the design was inspired by the eye of the common fly.
This new “surround sight” camera places over 100 cameras around the surface of a sphere the size of an orange (a smaller model was also designed that combines around 15 cameras into a sphere the size of a golf ball). The camera is also able to read the depth of objects. The data is fed into a computer which combined the visuals into a 3D world that users can then explore. All in real time.
There’s plenty of potential applications including teleconferencing; giving automated vehicles the ability to see and understand their surroundings; allowing filmmakers to shoot a scene from any possible vantage point.
The camera was built in conjunction of two teams at Switzerland’s EPFL Institute. I hope they didn’t spend too much time or energy on this project because the same exact effect has been achieved via a recent Kinect Hack within a matter of weeks and for the price of an Xbox.
Video demonstration after the jump.
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