360° panorama lens
Sony Global - CX-NEWS Vol.34: "Until now, taking a 360° panorama with a normal lens has required taking multiple shots while rotating the camera slowly and then combining ('stitching') those shots together to form the panorama. In contrast, the 360° full-circle lens allows the full 360° surroundings of the camera to be imaged at the same time with a single lens.
Sony has now developed a camera module that uses this 360° full-circle lens, and is releasing as commercial products both a camera module that uses a 380K-pixel, 30 fps CCD that outputs a ring-shaped image as a composite video signal as well as a high-resolution camera module that uses a 1.28 MP, 7.5 fps CCD with a built-in panorama expansion processing function. New functions and applications can be created by combining these devices with a variety of different products, and thus these products can contribute to the creation of new markets."


- posted by Sophont @ Sunday, April 25, 2004