A motorised tripod with a robotic finger can capture images with amazing resolution using a consumer digital camera. This image stitched from 1750 photos and capturing a panoramic view in Hawaii (top) contains impressive detail (bottom) (Image: Richard Palmer)

The best professional digital cameras can capture photos containing tens of megapixels. But, thanks to an affordable robotic tripod, it is now possible to use a consumer camera to take images in the gigapixel range &ndash like this one of President Obama’s inauguration.

The tripod robot, called Gigapan, was developed at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and uses motors to capture a scene with a grid of hundreds or thousands of images with the camera set to full zoom. Photo stitching software then combines them into a single super-detailed image containing billions of pixels, called a gigapan. The largest, most spectacular gigapans can be too large to handle on all but the most powerful desktop computers.

The result is too detailed to be viewed on any printout, but gigapans can be uploaded to a dedicated site where users are able zoom right into the imagesl.


With an affordable version of the device launched last month, the three-legged robot has the potential to be a boon to science, as well as holiday snaps.

Environmental record

A select group of around 25 scientists were among Gigapan’s early testers, in a project supported by a Pittsburgh non-profit organisation. After being introduced to Gigapan at a workshop last summer, the researchers were told to go out and experiment.

Botanist Richard Palmer at the Hawaii State Department of Health got his hands on one of the very first models at the end of 2007 and is in the process of working out how to use Gigapan to help monitor vulnerable environments.

Working with colleague Kim Bridges at the University of Hawaii and the US Geological Service, Palmer has recorded large gigapans in a valley, Kawela Gulch, denuded by feral goats and cattle grazing (see one here).

‘Biopiracy’ weapon

Successive panoramas will be taken every few months to provide a new way to document the recovery of vegetation over time.

Palmer has also pioneered a way to take gigapan images using a macro lens, providing a way to document herbarium specimens in sub-millimetre detail (see a gigapan of a herbarium specimen). That could help smaller institutions, especially in developing countries document species, he says.

By distributing gigapans instead of actual specimens, “this technique would allay fears that loaned specimens may never be returned and would also better regulate bioprospecting,” he says. Small herbariums can be victims of “biopiracy“, when DNA is extracted from loaned specimens to look for potentially valuable genes and molecules.

3D landscapes

Geologist Ron Schott, at Fort Hays State University, has also pushed the limits of gigapan photography.

He made the first 3D gigapans, viewed using red-green glasses to give a striking perspective on geological features even as you zoom in and out (see an example of a 3D gigapan).

They are made by combining two gigapans taken from slightly different positions. Schott is currently working to see if it is possible to build a detailed 3D virtual model of a landscape from a stereo gigapan.

Like Palmer, he has an eye on monitoring changing landscapes. “I’m eager to see if this can be used to monitor and measure erosion rates in places such as the Castle Rock Badlands (see gigapan) in western Kansas,” he says.

Schott has also led the way in exploring what can be done with gigapans online, using the programming tools provided by the Gigapan site. One example shows how two gigapans can be presented side by side (see gigapans) to allow easy comparison, or matching of geological faults or other scenes.

Another, the “guided gigapan”, takes the viewer on the tour of an image with a syncronised soundtrack explaining what they can see (click for an example).

SLR model?

While Palmer, Schott and other researchers using Gigapan – such as archaeologist Sarah Sharpe excavating the Great Temple (see gigapan) in Petra, Jordan, and

Bill Walleur who tracks chimps (see gigapan) with the Jane Goodall Institute in Tanzania – will continue to experiment, they are also keenly awaiting new models of the robotic helper.

One often requested feature is for it to be made sturdy enough to handle large SLR cameras, not just large “compact” cameras. Such versions are being developed, as well as a model that takes time-lapse panoramas.

Meanwhile, more scientists are being recruited to try out Gigapan, with workshops for them planned for May and October.