[OSM-newbies] DIY Streetview Camera - Was: Streetview / OSM Integration

[Florian Lohoff]

Hi,

On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 02:31:34PM -0400, Tac Tacelosky wrote:
> One issue, though, is that the camera is very expensive (around $17,000).
>  I've been driving around the DC area, and have collected about 15,000
> images so far.  We're still figuring out how to manage them, even at that
> relatively low number, processing them and uploading them to Amazon's s3
> can be very time-consuming.

I have been thinking about putting together a camera rig with used
pocket cameras on the roof of the car to make Streetview like 360° 
Images.

For a while i thought about using pocket cameras like the PowerShot G3
ff. and mounting 6 of them in a 60° angle on a plate on top of the car.

Then using hugin to make 360° images as the overlap is the same for
all images this should be an easy task.

The problem with that i have identified is Synchronous shutter release.
Pocket cameras tend to have a long shutter delay and one could easily
only trigger it via USB (Or by soldering wires to the shutter release
button). So triggering like 5-6 Cameras at once would be near to
impossible. Most likely this is the cause Google uses video not still
imagery at least as far as i know.

So i thought about using USB Video Cams like the Microsoft HD 1) stuff.
With HD video at 1920x1080 and most likely a much larger focal length
so one would need more cameras for getting the 360° panorama. Getting
those images together would be more difficult.

Problem with the Microsoft HD cam could be autofocus you dont want at
all to happen. I am unshure whether that could be disabled.

Flo
1) http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/en-us/p/lifecam-cinema
-- 
Florian Lohoff                                                 f at zz.de
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