360 Panorama from Occipital Makes Panoramic Photos from Mobile Phone



First Snowfall from Front of House
First Snowfall from Front of House

Yes, I shoveled this morning.

Then I got out my iPhone and took a 360 Panorama view of the neighborhood. I used the new 360 Panorama application by Occipital for the iphone. All I had to do was spin around and capture the image.

The program just came out this week. It’s for iPhone 3GS, 4 and iPod Touch 4g. You call up the application, then start the capture at one point. Once the image is capturing, just spin around in a circle moving the camera up and down. When you have spun a full 360 degrees and the whole wireframe is filled up, choose done and your panorama is ready!

360 Panorama Wireframe
360 Panorama Wireframe

Once the 360 image is complete, I can choose to Twitter it (using YFrog or Twitpic), email or save it to the phone. You don’t even have to do the full 360 view. Let’s say you are taking a picture of a concert stage. Just capture the area and choose done.

The 360 view does have an online viewer to watch your work – Here is the 360 view of my front yard.

The program uses stitching of pictures, so you will see some weird spots in your photo. Just like most 360 programs, it can only do so much to “Stitch” the images together. Lighting and movement in the scene can make it tougher for the image to smoothly stitch together.

A pretty impressive application for only $2.99. I have been playing with different scenes. Remember that light also plays a role in your image, so make sure you have adequate lighting.

Now I have to go shovel again.

About J Powers

Podcaster, Blogger, IT Specialist. Been working in IT for over 15 years. Supported Windows 95 upon initial Launch and have worked in desktop, server and Web site support roles. Started Geekazine in 2007 and launched 5 shows from it. Speaker on many topics in Podcasting and technology. Also a musician.