Panoramic Image Stitcher Application for N900

[joeD]

I am not sure how hard this would be, but with the N900 having a "quality" 5 MP Carl Zeiss camera, is there any developer interested in tackling a challenge on making a Panoramic image stitcher? Something that would take a series of photos, like up to 10, using a transparent, overlaid edge to line up the next shot with the previous one, then stitch them together to form a large panoramic image. I would imagine in would work in conjunction with the camera application somehow, so all the image parameter would be set up that way e.g., image size, quality, effects, etc. It could be really cool. Any one out there working on such a program, or be willing to?

[lardman]

Yep it's an interesting topic. Might be better to find some existing software and re-compile that rather than re-writing (though writing it yourself is of course the interesting bit). I'd search for a command link app ideally (no gui = fewer deps and the possibility to integrate it into some other program more easily).

I've just done a quick Google and these things exist, in fact quite a few do, and many are command line apps (as this is a reasonably popular research topic, so there's lots of codes out there)

[paulkoan]

Yeah - recompile hugin I reckon.

Gui based, but gtk so all is well there, then panotools for the backend.

This of course is easy to say!

[benny1967]

On my S60 phone, the camera application does this. You take one pictuture after the other, and they'll all get saved as one large panorama image.

Are we sure yet that the Maemo 5 camera application will not offer this feature? Of course hugin or thelike would still be nice for images that come from a different source then....

[ragnar]

No panoramic feature in the N900 camera application. (In general, there are zero to minimal links to any S60 application vs. 'respective' Maemo application.)

But it's definitely a cool idea, especially considering that the N900 takes some nice photos.

[benny1967]

thx for this info, ragnar.

hugin, iirc, has a terrible UI. and i'm not talking about "all thumbs" - it's hard to use on the desktop, too. simply too powerful, too many options. it's not fun. not at all.

maybe a dramatically simplified GUI based on the same backend would be better, even if you lose features and settings.

[ragnar]

Yes, definitely keeping it simple. iPhone has several of these kind of apps - useful for inspiration and reference.

Pano: http://debaclesoftware.com/
TripStitch: http://byteslice.com/Support/TripStitch
AutoStitch: http://www.technosanity.com/2009/06/08/autostitch-my-new-favorite-iphone-panorama-app/

It would really need to be as simple as those are...

[benny1967]

still, the easiest way for any user to create panorama images is directly from the camera: take a picture, move the cam to the left, take a second picture etc etc.

this process could be further simplified if the cam application takes a new picture without any user interaction as soon as the overlapping area reaches a certain minimum. (i think this is how it's done on my phone, but i cant recall exactly - it's 2 months since i last used it.)

this needn't be included in the stock camera application. it would be OK as a standalone app.

BTW: this is probably the first time in my whole life that i asked for a simplified GUI and less options.

[darethehair]

thx for this info, ragnar.

hugin, iirc, has a terrible UI. and i'm not talking about "all thumbs" - it's hard to use on the desktop, too. simply too powerful, too many options. it's not fun. not at all.

maybe a dramatically simplified GUI based on the same backend would be better, even if you lose features and settings.

I agree with you! Even though the idea for a stitcher is cool, I cannot imagine being able to do a 'good' job of it on such a tiny screen. Heck, when I bought a 1920x1200 monitor for my desktop to do this, it was like night-and-day for doing this compared to before -- I cannot imagine what it would be like on a tablet.

On this topic, though, it would be nice if there was a stand-alone panoramic *viewer* -- especially one that could handle 'spherical' panoramas!

[joeD]

Yes, definitely keeping it simple. iPhone has several of these kind of apps - useful for inspiration and reference.

Pano: http://debaclesoftware.com/
TripStitch: http://byteslice.com/Support/TripStitch
AutoStitch: http://www.technosanity.com/2009/06/08/autostitch-my-new-favorite-iphone-panorama-app/

It would really need to be as simple as those are...

the iphone apps was exactly what i was thinking. Simple UI, works well with the small, and lesser resolution screen than the n900, and they are all stand alone apps that use the "ok" camera, and I have seen some really nice, well stitched panoramics. Some of the apps can actually stitch up to 15 consecutive images!

Thanks for discussing this. Would be fantastic to have such an application on a high end device like this.

[timsamoff]

...a Panoramic image stitcher...
Actually, this would be a really cool method for making "Image Sets" as well. These are a series of four images that apply to the four panoramic desktops in Maemo 5.

Tim

[lardman]

I agree with you! Even though the idea for a stitcher is cool, I cannot imagine being able to do a 'good' job of it on such a tiny screen. Heck, when I bought a 1920x1200 monitor for my desktop to do this, it was like night-and-day for doing this compared to before -- I cannot imagine what it would be like on a tablet.

The stitching is all done in software (or at least it could be, no idea what those apps make you do), though I agree that viewing the panorama may not be ideal on a small screen. But who am I to question someone else's dream? :)

[attila77]

Maybe if you had cam app assistance it would be easier... As in, choose a panorama mode, and then show 1/4 of the previous image overlaid in the cam app and remember to use the same cam settings as previously (exposure, ISO, etc). It probably would be bad at high-res photos, but for wallpaper/web class stuff it might be more than enough and it requires little to no postprocessing.

[Mandibela]

http://store.ovi.com/content/23154

It seems someone did create a program for shooting panoramic images. (Only a) Trial is available already, but this will be a commercial app.

[flydeep]

Just tried the trial version, a cool app. The picture quality sucks big time but with steady hands can it be improved?