Also check out Jaime’s scoop on GigaPan.com (English Translation by Google).

Current Releases:

Windows: gigapan-1.0.0805.msi
Requirements:
Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 1GB RAM (2GB recommended)

Macintosh: gigapan-1.0.0804.dmg
Requirements:
Intel-based Macintosh OS X 10.4.9 or later 1GB RAM (2GB recommended)

Now get stitching!

To wit: Exhibit A and Exhibit B. It also shows up in the background and foreground of some of the other photos in this Flickr set. You can’t see much, but one thing that should please many is that it has two arms for support of the camera tray rather than just the one on the previous models. No more jagged edges…

After the show I shot a 360 degree GigaPan of the TWiT studio from Leo’s perspective.

.

This is another iFrame solution to embedding photos in a blog, so it won’t work for those using WordPress.com hosted blogs, but if you’re hosting your own WordPress.org blog or using other blogging software that allows iFrame embeds, this solution might work well for you.

One important thing to note: If you try to cut and paste the URL from GigaPan’s “View in Google Earth 4.2+” link below a geolocated GigaPan into the HD View Preview utility it won’t work. You’ll need to take the URL that you cut and paste and append “&nonl=1″ (minus the quotes) to the end of the URL. Why? Beats me, but I followed the examples they gave in the right hand sidebar to figure this out.

[Update: Well it looked good on their site, but apparently WordPress doesn't like it on my site. I just upgraded my servers, so it may be a configuration issue on my end. I'll keep investigating...]

[Update #2: It works now! Thanks to Eric Stollnitz for his assistance.]

• Full-time software engineers to join the core development team of the website
  and the panorama stitching application
• Geospatial Software Architect

Here are some of the skills they’re seeking:

GigaPan web site skills:
Strong web development background
Django experience is strongly preferred
Javascript, DOM, AJAX, database and Linux experience
PHP, Actionscript 2.0 / 3.0 and Flash experience is a plus
JSON-based Web API use/design (GData, Maps etc.)
Software QA processes

GigaPan stitching and image processing software:
Strong C++ experience
Comfort with mathematics and image processing
MacOS and Windows development experience
Qt user interface experience is a plus
Software QA processes

The upside is huge. GigaPan is marketing an affordable system that turns consumer digital cameras into Gigapixel capable devices! The project is committed to open standards and working hard to realize the full promise of these remarkable images.

Send your CV to illah@cmu.edu and randy.sargent@west.cmu.edu. Please help them out if you can!

.

Happy Birthday to two giants of history!

No doubt, as more and more people own their own GigaPans robots, or have friends or family who do, the traffic to the GigaPan.org website will continually increase over time, thereby generating more attention, snapshots, and comments for any popular GigaPan. At the same time, it’s doubtful that any single GigaPan will ever have the same novelty for so many people. What’s more, because GigaPans are unlikely to capture instantaneous news events because of the nature of how they’re captured and stitched, it’s unlikely that they will ever compete with single shot photos or video for capturing breaking events or things that happen very suddenly or spontaneously – the sort of image that is likely to generate an overwhelming traffic spike. I have a hard time imagining an event that would be conducive to GigaPanning that would simultaneously combine the novelty, widespread popular appeal, and explorability of Bergman’s Inaugural GigaPan, though I’d love to be proven wrong.

So with those caveats in mind, I put the following question to the community of GigaPanners: What do you imagine will be the characteristics of the first GigaPan to match or surpass David Bergman’s Inaugural GigaPan in popularity?

And since I’ve thought about this a bit, myself, I’ll let you in on my own speculation.

The odds that someone will prove me wrong and use a GigaPan to capture some breaking news event in a way that is both immediate and explorable seem long, but this type of GigaPan may well be within the capability of the technology in years to come. Still, my speculation is that it will not be an unaltered reality/news GigaPan that first knocks David Bergman’s Inaugural GigaPan from the top spot.

I think the one to do it will use a GigaPan (or a series of GigaPans) the way Kit Williams used the childrens book Masquerade to combine artistry and a good old fashioned treasure hunt to inspire millions to visit the site again and again, dissecting the GigaPans in detail and putting together clues over many weeks or months, and generating lots of global conversation and collaboration along the way.

I’m certainly not artistic enough to put this together myself, but if there’s an artist out there who thinks s/he’s up to the challenge, I’ve got a couple of ideas about how to make GigaPan technology a central feature of a puzzle like this. Contact me if you’re interested.