Panono is not like a regular camera that we use, it's a camera shaped like a ball that can be tossed into the air and takes full spherical pictures in all directions, 360° horizontally and 360° vertically.
Thanks to its ultra-high resolution of 108MP camera, you can zoom in as far as you want and discover objects you missed out.
Using Panono is no rocket science, all you need to do is just toss the camera into the air.
If you are wondering about how the camera works, every time you toss it into the air, an accelermoter inside the camera measures the launch acceleration to calculate when the camera is at its highest point and barely moving. At that point, all the 36 cameras inside the Panono are triggered and the moment is captured, in all directions, 360° X 360°.
Panono is ideal for a day out with friends, lets you capture all aspects of the event. "For the first time, you can have people – including yourself – in your panoramic pictures without worrying about anybody moving in between shots, like what happens with typical panoramic images that you create by spinning around to take a series of single images. Now everyone can be in the picture and have a fun time taking and sharing it."
Moreover, you don't even have to wait to get home and stitch all the images together into a single image. You can see them instantly on your free Panono app on your smartphone.
To know more about Panono we got in touch with Jonas Pfeil, the creator of Panono and here's what he told us.
Happy reading!
1. Hi Jonas, please introduce yourself to our readers.
I'm Jonas Pfeil, creator of the Panono camera and co-founder of Panono.
2. How did the idea of the throw able panoramic camera come about? What was the inspiration for it?
I was traveling on Tonga where he took panoramic pictures with his normal camera. This works by taking overlapping pictures that get blended into a panorama either on a smartphone or a PC. The problem is that this requires many images, takes a long time and does not allow capturing anything that moves, like people. The scene has to stay still between two images. So while hiking on Tonga I had the idea to throw a special camera into the air that captures the whole scene in one go.
3. What were some of the hurdles you faced in creating the Panono camera? How did you surmount them?
While creating the original prototype the high speed electronics and the scope of the work were a challenge. Basically with that prototype I tried to play it as safe as possible by over- rather than under-sizing the power supply for example. It had to work at the first try.
4. All your press releases and even the video by you claims that the camera has a resolution of 72MP. But the home screen of the video claims "Now with 108MP". So have you increased the resolution of each camera to 3MP?
Yes :)
5. What material is the outer cover of the camera? It is inevitable that at sometime or the other the camera will hit the ground when tossed into the the air. When dropped from what height would the camera not sustain any damage?
The camera will be made of super-though plastic, similar to the material used for GoPro cases for example. As Panono is a throwable ball camera it is built to withstand drops from throwing height without breaking.
6. Once the 36 images are captured is the panorama stitched in the iOS/Android App or on the Cloud and then relayed back to the smart device to view?
Raw, unstitched panoramas will be relayed by the app into the cloud, stitched there and are then available for viewing online (similar to Google Street View). They are also sent back to the app so you can view them on your mobile devices.
7. How is the Panono camera different from the Sqito and the Bublcam? Tell us about the main differences?
Panono has a super-high resolution that allows users to view details, like faces, even when they are more than a few feet away. As with these kind of cameras you are photographing in every direction, this means pixel are also getting distributed in every direction, so you definitely need this high resolution.
8. When you are not working on the Panono camera how do you like to spend your spare time? What is your most favoured activity?
I am a free climber. I love spending weekends in the mountains south of Berlin. You can see some of this area in our "Panono on the rocks" video :)
9. What are your future plans for the Panono camera? Do you plan to enhance its capabilities in any way?
We would love to make it watertight for example. A lot of people told us they want to go diving with the Panono!
10. Having developed a product from the prototype stage to its final conception what lessons have you learnt and would like to pass on to budding and aspiring entrepreneurs?
Development is not finished yet and production has not started, so there is still a lot to learn. What has been astounding so far was the experience that a complex project can really turn out as planned on paper. So maybe my advice would be to keep going, even if you are sometimes afraid it that may not work in the end. It just might :)
Thanks Jason for taking out the time and doing this interview with us. We'd like to wish you and your team at Panono the very best for the future.
You can preorder Panono from here.
Stay tuned with E-junkie for more of such inspiring product stories.
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