Widening Horizons
(C) The view from the city center. Photo by: Muto Masaru.
Using lenses that can take 360-degree pictures has opened up new possibilities for photography. If you were standing in a busy, crowded place like Shibuya in Tokyo, where thousands of people are coming and going all day and night, you would be able to photograph all the people in the crowd at the same time.
Projecting images onto a cylinder-shaped screen
The new lens can be used with a video recorder as well as a normal camera, making it possible to take moving images of what is happening all around you. If you fit the lens onto a projector, you can show 3D images onto a dome-shaped screen, allowing viewers to enjoy a full-surround video experience. You could set up a camera on Mount Fuji (the highest mountain in Japan), for example, to take footage of the stars, and then use the footage to create a planetarium using real images.
(C) Seagull sky, No. 1 Photo by: Yuasa Akihisa
Tests carried out with the new technology have shown that 360-degree images were much more realistic than normal images—people said they felt they were really there inside the film.
Scientists are working on ways to put this new technology to work, such as in security cameras.