William Atkins
Wednesday, 28 January 2009 03:23
Science -
Space
Page 1 of 2
David Bergman used a Gigapan camera system to generate a panoramic image of President Obama’s inaugural address at the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2009. The system was spun off from NASA technology that was used on the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity.
To see the Bergman image, go to the Gigapan.org article “
President Barack Obama's Inaugural Address by David Bergman.”
According to the January 27, 2009 NASA media release “
NASA-derived technology captures unique inaugural image,”
“The resulting picture is a combination of 220 images with an overall size of 1,474 megapixels.”
The
Gigapan system captures thousands of digital images, which are then transformed into a
“uniform high-resolution picture of more than a billion pixels.”
Actually, the Gigapan image of the Obama Inaugural Address is composed of 59,783 by 24,658 pixels—or 1.474 megapixels.
NASA states that the Gigapan system is the end-result of a two-year collaborative effort between
NASA Ames Research Center (Intelligent Systems Division’s Robotics Group),
Google, and
Carnegie Mellon University.
The Gigapan system consists of a robotic platform that is attached to a digital camera and computer software.
David Bergman explains how he took the photograph on his website "
How I Made a 1,474-Megapixel Photo During President Obama's Inaugural Address."
More information on page two.
