Ronnie Miranda (left) and Samuel Cox

Gigapixel photographer Ronnie Miranda staged GigaLinc: An Immersive Gigapixel Photography Exhibit at the Blue Moon Theatre of the Shangri-la Hotel in Vancouver, BC on October 13th & 14th, 2011. The exhibit was held in collaboration with Samuel Cox who developed GigaLinc for his Master’s degree in Digital Imaging and Photography at the University of Lincoln, UK.

GigaLinc is an exhibition that allows participants to interactively explore large-scale panoramic images. Gigapixel images (100 times the information captured by a 10 megapixel digital camera) are digitally projected onto a large screen that allows viewers to navigate and explore the image in detail using Kinect-based hand-gestures, zooming in and out of areas of particular interest. Surround-sound adds to the multi-sensory experience.

GigaLinc explores the world of immersive photography and the possibilities it offers for changing the way we look at and use photographic images. It does this through digital technologies that allows the viewer to ‘step inside’ and move around large panoramic images, presented in astonishing levels of detail. As the perspective changes, the viewer feels as if he or she is actually ‘immersed’ in the scene.

The technology consists of several features: the hand tracking utilizes an Xbox Kinect to input gesture based commands that runs on open source software. Arduino allows the participants to select their image just by tapping one touch-pad on the floor.

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PHOTOS

The new BC Place Stadium reopened on September 30, 2011. Renovations, upgrades and its new cable-supported retractable roof cost CA$563 million. The opening game was between the CFL’s BC Lions and the Edmonton Eskimos. Ronnie Miranda created a 4.8 gigapixel image of the opening ceremonies.

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Ronnie Miranda shooting a gigapixel image & timelapse from a high platform during re-opening night.

Ronnie created a second gigapixel image on October 2, 2011 for first game of the Vancouver Whitecaps MLS at the new stadium.

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Canada Day 2011 is a 7.2 billion pixel image, 90° view of the famous Vancouver skyline from across Stanley Park. The image is composed of 1224 individual photos taken on July 1, 2011  using a GigaPan EPIC Pro, Canon EOS Rebel T2i and a Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM. The horizontal banding is due to the change in cloud and lighting conditions during the 90 minute shoot. It is the largest digital photo ever created of the Vancouver Skyline as of July 2011.

Peter Grainger of CTV News BC interviewed Ronnie Miranda for the GigaPan images he created of the 2011 Stanley Cup Canucks Game 5 Fan Zone. The feature was aired on June 13, 2011. As part of the story and with the help of CTV News, Ronnie created a 2.4 gigapixel panorama of the Vancouver Canucks away game viewing at Rogers Arena for Game 6.

Related Articles:

• GigaPan Creates ‘Where’s Waldo’ of Canucks Fan Zones
• Stanley Cup View: 2,392 Megapixel Panoramic Image

UPDATE: On June 15, 2011, Ronnie Miranda captured and created a 2.11 gigapixel image of the Game 7 Stanley Cup Canucks Fan Zone before the riots broke out. The image has received international attention (see below) and has more than 5.4 millions hits as of Oct 23, 2011. It was also used as the cover of the official independent review of 2011 Vancouver Stanley Cup Playoffs Riot.

• Cover of "The Night the City Became a Stadium: Independent Review of 2011 Vancouver Stanley Cup Riot"
• Technology Is Our Friend… Except When It Isn’t
• Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: The Thousand Eyes of Biometrics
• Massive, High-Resolution Photo of Stanley Cup Street Party Vies for Facebook Tagging Record
• UK Daily Mail: Facebook Tagging Record Attempt

Vancouver Whitecaps FC brings their Major League Soccer debut on March 19, 2011 at Empire Field to the fans with GigaTag.

Northeast View

Southwest View

Two 2-gigapixel panoramas were created. Each one was made up of 200 photos stitched together taken over a 20 minute span. With GigaTag, users can explore and zoom into incredible detail, find themselves and their friends, then tag and share on Facebook. The Whitecaps are the very first-ever Canadian entity to use GigaTag.

Related Articles:

• GigaTag Helps Drive Engagement Around Sporting Events
• Interesting Use of Social Media for Sports and Events

Downtown Vancouver is a 10 billion pixel image, 160° view of downtown Vancouver, BC Canada. The image is composed of 1380 individual photos taken on December 17, 2010 using a GigaPan EPIC Pro, Canon EOS Rebel T2i and a Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM.

The famous North Shore Mountains (Cypress, Lions, Grouse and Seymour) are in the backdrop. On the left is English Bay. Spanning the width is False Creek with the Yaletown condos (left), Cambie Street Bridge (center), and on the right, BC Place Stadium with its new retractable roof under construction, Rogers Arena, Port Metro Vancouver, Olympic Athlete’s Village and Science World. The tallest building (center) is the Living Shangri-la Tower.

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BEHIND-THE-SCENES

Peter Grainger of CTV News BC interviewed Ronnie Miranda and featured the GigaPan technology and his various works. For the news feature which aired on Nov 17, 2010, Ronnie created a 1.8 gigapixel panorama of West Vancouver.

Related Article: GigaPans Turn ‘Where’s Waldo?’ Into Child’s Play

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Coquitlam 360° is a 5.7 billion pixel image of Coquitlam, BC. The image is made up of 666 photos taken on Oct 21, 2010 from the rooftop of the Levo building.

Tri-City skyline captured

A Port Moody man took scenic photography to a new level last month in creating the first ever 360-degree panorama shot of the Tri-City skyline.

A Port Moody man took scenic photography to a new level last month in creating the first ever 360-degree panorama shot of the Tri-City skyline.

Using a specially designed computer program, Ronnie Miranda, a graphic designer and 3D animator, spent hours "stitching" together close to 700 images taken from the top of a building in Coquitlam’s city centre.

"The technology is basically used for education and research," he said. "It was developed by NASA and they used it for the Mars Rovers expeditions."

The images were selected from 1,000 photos he took using a GigaPan robot. With the help of the machine, shots from all angles are taken from one location, which can then be puzzle-pieced together using a computer.

The final product is a computer image that allows the viewer to see a 360-degree view of the region, something Miranda said has not been done before.

"We just shoot," he said. "I go up to the highest point and look for the best view."

This is not the first time Miranda has used the technology. Last summer, he shot a 240-degree skyline image of downtown Vancouver from the 58th floor of the Shangri-La, B.C.’s tallest building.

Since then, he has shot the Olympic Oval in Richmond, the ice rink at Robson Square and Ferguson Point at Stanley Park, along with several interior room and lobby shots of the Shangri-La Hotel.

His next project is expected to take him to Georgia, where he has been asked to shoot a football game using the GigaPan imager.

Vancouver West End is a 10 billion pixel, 100° West-to-North view of Vancouver, BC Canada. The image is a composite of 816 individual photos taken on May 8, 2010 from the 58th floor of Living Shangri-la Vancouver using a GigaPan EPIC 100, Canon EOS Rebel T2i and a Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM.

This image was intended to be part of  Vancouver 12 Gigapixels. The 2 Gigapan images could not be stitched together due a lot of misaligned photos caused by a broken EPIC 100 during the shoot which also affected image sharpness.

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