Forget the ladder, Panono is a 360-degree camera you can toss up into the air

If you’ve ever been stuck behind something or someone taller than you while trying to take a picture, you probably wish you could throw your camera up the air and have it snap a few pics. That’s a ridiculous suggestion, unless that camera happens to be a Panono, a “throwable” panoramic ball camera made of a tough clear plastic that’s currently seeking funding on Indiegogo.

Like the Bublcam we recently wrote about, the Panono is a 360-degree camera that lets you take Google Street View-like images. Created by a Berlin-based startup, the Panono can either work on a stand or be thrown around or up into the air – like a ball, you can actually play with it, letting you shoot photos with a kinetic perspective.

All around the Panono are 36 fixed-focus cameras that fire simultaneously. Combined they work to create a 72-megapixel image. An accelerometer calculates when the Panono reaches its highest point, which then fires all 36 cameras. Paired with your iOS or Android smartphone, you can preview a low-res version of the image; it uses your smartphone (or tablet) to upload all 36 individual images to the cloud for stitching and archiving, which can then be viewed as a panorama image on your smart device, the Web, or social media site (click here to view the 360-panorama of Tokyo taken with the Panono, seen up top). The images are also stored on internal flash memory that holds about 400 panoramas.

If you want to be among the first to get one, unfortunately it’s going to cost you $499 (early bird special), which is a bit expensive (more than the Bublcam) and will cost even more if it makes it to retail. However, it’s a fun concept and far easier to try to shoot a 360-degree panorama from way up in the air. So far the Panono has raised less than $100,000 of its $900,000 goal, but there are still 53 days left.

Check out the video and the Panono’s Indiegogo site for more details.

(Via Cnet)