Panoramic 'Ball Camera' for 360 Degree View

This patent pending 'Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera' combines 360 panoramic photographic capability with tossablity. It's the first to combine these two elements.

Watch how it works:

As the video explains, the 36 mobile phone camera take their shot when the ball is at its highest point -- at this point, the ball is relatively steady and hardly moves for a split second before gravity drags it down.

Jonas Pfeil and his peers at Computer Graphics Group, TU Berlin, created the ball camera, which "lets users interactively explore a full representation of the captured environment." Here's how it works:

Our camera contains an accelerometer which we use to measure launch acceleration. Integration lets us predict rise time to the highest point, where we trigger the exposure. After catching the ball camera, pictures are downloaded in seconds using USB and automatically shown in our spherical panoramic viewer.

The green material around the ball protects it just in case the thrower isn't able to catch it.

[H/T Engadget]