Just announced on the market, is already available to the public, and it is the first high resolution panoramic camera capable of shooting a 360° degrees views in high resolution while providing a swell of complememtary features that make it a perfect marketing vehicle on the Internet. Born out of Switzerland, and from the high precision factory of Lustdorf, where the famous Alpa medium format camera bodies are manufactured the new LiveCam from RoundShot has some pretty spectacular characteristics: It creates an automatic database of all the images it captures and it allows end users to step back and view any panorama at any point of time in the past. (e.g.: Let me see how was the view on New Year's eve of last year.) Time-lapse movies can be created for any day, week or month. The LiveCam is highly protected in a massive metal case and it delivers high resolution 360° panoramas continuosly. Here a few impressive views updated in near real-time (when it is daytime in Switzerland):
Swiss National Museums - Lustdorf view
Gymnasium Bäumlihof Basel
Overall price for the LiveCam without optionals: around USD $ 10,000. More info here. Imagine this LiveCam atop the roof of your favourite resort vacation or on top of the tallest skyscrapers in all the major cities around the world. Do you think you could build some marketing around it? You can be sure this is a powerful attention gatherer, and while until now advertising technology has gradually increased its presence inside the urban landscape, this is the first instance where technology augments reality by extending it to those far away, enhancing it by alowing access to views inaccessible to us, and all of this without ever physically intruding in it.