High Resolution Camera Matrix

Please describe the <...own solution...> ready for Cost Engineering reduction suggestions below.

Have you Googled today?

Someone may have already done this.

Instructables may be helpful.

My iphone could do that....Do you have a smart phone?

It's a matter of how fast you want this to happen.

This can be done using DSLRs and Photoshop software. One or more DSLRs can take the images, Photoshop (even the low-cost version, Photoshop Elements) can then take the images and digitally stitch them together and apply automatic filtering to make sure the edges are straight and that the colors and gray levels are matched along the boundaries.

This will take some time and some processing power on your computer. If you want it done in a manner of minutes, or seconds, you'll need to do a lot of development.

This is great. this solution could work with me. but we need it to be automated within 2 seconds as maximum. Do you have any idea? you could contact me.

Can you put a name to your post?

You could start here. Duke University Unveils Their Gigapixel Camera. More info

AWARE-2 Camera 001. news24.com/ Some theory,

And Google.

Amazing, but this is much more than what we need.

Not saying it can't be done, but you're going to need expertise in optics, computer science, real-time systems, and hardcore programming to get it done. Here's a 570MP image capture machine (calling it a camera just doesn't do it any justice):

http://petapixel.com/2010/01/18/monstrous-570-megapixel-digital-camera/

Ahem. A large extremely high resolution camera with 189 CCD arrays of 3.2 Gigapixels for each array element is already being assembled.

Nobody said it couldn't be done, although at $390,000,000 and 4 years to build this hardly seems within OP's budget, but it does achieve his imaging speed requirement.

There is something within his grasp though, it's the sensor array built for a military drone. The neat part is that it uses 368 off the shelf camera elements from cell phones, coupled with some interesting electronics to help it do the following:

"...Here are a few mind-blowing facts to put the ARGUS-IS's camera into perspective:

ARGUS can scan 25 square miles of ground surface in extremely high detail, all at once, from 20,000 feet. It's like having over 100 predator drones scanning an area the size of a medium-sized city at once.

This thing can pick up objects as small as 6-inches on the ground and see you waving at your buddies from 17,500 feet in the air. And all of the imaging data it collects is stored at a rate of about one million terabytes per day..."

Just imagine what Big Brother can do with all that data!!! The PBS NOVA series did a piece on it, at $18,500,000 it's cheaper and only took 30 months to complete.

The pixel detectors of Argus do not have single photon sensitivity the LSST will have.

The point of my reply and many of the other imaging project replies to this thread is that imaging research has already greatly exceeded the resolution and speed the OP is trying to cobble together. Therefore unless the objects to be imaged have some unstated attribute that complicates the project (fragile, sensitive, valuable, etc.) the imaging equipment the OP desires already exists in a company that can just be contracted.

I think this is too much; our needs could be archive within few weeks, available technology and reasonable budget. We do not need to build that much huge solution. Many thanks for your comment.

Dr. Mogbl:

Is this for collegiate research, or this for military intelligence. We can't just be out there handing out what we know. An iphone and photoshop will get you there plenty fast. To attempt to set up multiples of cameras here are the requirements:

(1)absolute alignment with no change in perspective over the stitched-together image field.

(2)very precise optics with exactly matched focal length lenses, and idential equivalent aperature.

(3)absolutely match color response and gain of all detectors in all the cameras.

(4)a lot of cheap cameras will not get this job done - it simply will not work.

Therefore, I wish you good luck, but expect that you are in pretty deep. Get some help by listening to the other posters, several good ideas.

If military - see what your allies will share with your government, although there are certain limits, I am sure.

If civilian use - start off small, and work your way up, but don't buy cheap junk, as it will severly disappoint you.

tooo big. thanks

This would probably work with some modification....

http://trackair.com/index.php/products/camera-systems/chimera-400-mp-midas/

The idea is good, but not new as others pointed out. Some questions that come to my mind are:

1. Which sensor did you choose? (CCD/CMOS)

2. Which software did you use? (Ex:-OpenCV, MATLAB, Halcon, etc.)

3. Are all the sensors of same make, resolution, form factor, power rating, etc.?

4. Are you using embedded platform with dedicated controller or a general PC for computation and image reconstruction?

5. Was the lens tailored to suit your requirement or did you use off the shelf lenses?

Since you have completed already, congratulations!!! :-)

Dear All,

Thanks for all people who participated in this discussion. I want to highlight that our project is much simpler from the ideas have been discussed here. The ideas mentioned are much more than what we need. We are talking about a simple camera matrix with 400-600 MP, to shoot A0 size document (CAD & architecture drawings). We already worked with high resolutions cameras with 160 MP - 200 MP available in the markets. our target is less than 1m sq. - not miles- and with less than 500 DPI. For peoples who have experience, this is small project could be built with 40 MP camera and few additional parts. We are searching to build 400 MP cost-effective scanning system. If anyone has a good experience which can solve those problems, this will be great.

Thanks

Ask an engineer to pitch a tent and he builds a highrise...

If all you want to image is an A0 size document then you can do it much more simply with a single lens/sensor combination, mounted on an X-Y carriage of appropriate dimensions, taking multiple shots to be pieced together in software.

Hi,

You can arrange 3-4 camera in a square formation (high resolution as you mentioned) like below and capture image at the same instant. process the image using MATLAB/OpenCV to delete redundant image information from each camera, use the default image stitch library available in the software or a create your own algorithm for stitching as well.. Voila, the hardware's ready(I guess so)... If each camera used is say 160 MP then the resultant image will at least be 500-600MP.

At one time this was the preferred machine for copying documents to an image.

"Minox Riga with Minostigmat 3,5 F=15 lens" by Dnalor 01 - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Minox_Riga_with_Minostigmat_3,5_F%3D15_lens.jpg#/media/File:Minox_Riga_with_Minostigmat_3,5_F%3D15_lens.jpg