

Panoramic, high resolution picture of London - danielhunt
http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html

======
nakedrobot2
Hi,

Creator of the image here. First of all, thank you for all the attention, it's
a real honor to be on the front page oF HN for almost a whole day now.

I am the founder of 360cities.net and creator of previous world record images
such as "Prague 18 gigapixels", "Strahov Library 40 gigapixels" and "London 80
Gigapixels". This newest image was commissioned by BT as a kind of closing
"Thank you London" gesture of the Olympic year. Of course, they didn't want
"just" a jaw-droppingly enormous image, they wanted a _world record_ image!
Unfortunately, these things are getting a lot harder to accomplish, and we're
starting to go up against some constrainsts of optics, air density, and so on.

So, to create this image, we needed 4 cameras shooting simultaneously in order
to get all the images in a reasonable length of time. We needed the very best
optics out there, and CMOS sensors with the smallest pixels (somewhat
unfortunately this meant the 3 year old Canon 7D). We needed the fasted and
most precise panoramic robots to mount the cameras on. We needed gigantic
memory cards, 128GB, to store a full run of images on one card. We needed 4
laptops to copy the cards quick enough to shoot again (buying more cards
wasn't in the budget). In short, we needed a ridiculous amount of gear - this
took 2 days to set up.

We spent 3 days shooting. The first day it was raining, but we shot anyway to
learn the gear and see what mistakes we might make. The second day there were
50km/h winds which, 150 meters up, is very cold and a little bit dangerous. We
made sure the gear was triple secured, and we shot anyway. One of the three
photographers threatened to leave the project. It was unpleasant. But we
uncovered more issues which we were able to solve. Keep in mind the cameras
were moving continuously, and focusing, and shooting - they never stopped to
take a shot. 12600 shots while moving and focusing each time? This required
some very exacting work, knowing the gear, and maybe even a bit of luck.

Day 3 was clear, and not windy. We got 2 sets of images shot. All cameras got
the shots they needed in 2 sets. That is 96000 images with not a shot missed.
This to me is a huge technological achievement that i'm proud of, and I will
sing the praises of Canon anytime someone asks me to :-)

Now, on to stitching. Normally I have no problem stitching 2 or 4 thousand
images. But this is an order of magnitude more. As gabriel weinberg noted
recently, you find out what breaks when you increase things by an order of
magnitude.

Basically, the stitching software, Kolor Autopano Giga, was basically
inoperable with this size data set. They scolded me for not having told them
about this shoot beforehand. They told me that they know about the issues but
other things are taking precedence in the development of the software.
Stitching a world record amount of images is, by definition, an edge case. So
they weren't really able to help me.

Stitching ended up taking nearly 4 months when we thought it would take about
4 weeks. These 4 months were spent working until 3 or 4am many nights of the
week. Deadlines slipped. I suffered. My family suffered. After 6 weeks of work
I had accomplished nearly nothing and started to panic. I just had to keep on
pushing....

In the end, we had to set a delivery date for the client. This required me to
leave a few mistakes in the image that I would have liked to fix. However keep
in mind that some areas of bad alignment on a normal image might take 30
minutes to fix, but with this size project in the software, it took A WEEK to
fix. This kind of work is extremely demoralizing and there isn't much to be
learned from it either.

In the end, the image is finished. As they say "you never finish, you only
stop!". I'll probably make a few more fixes, later. For right now I need to
decompress for a while.

So that is some background on how the image was created. It's not perfect, but
overall it is much better than I expected. Shipping it was a terrible, brutal
grind that I hope to never experience again. But it's done now and that feels
pretty sweet.

I'm typing this on the bus home from the airport after being in London for a
tv show where they announced the image. That was fun. But the best feeling is
knowing that the thing is finished and shipped, and if I ever have to do a
similar job again I will hopefully learn from the mistakes made on this one
and not have such a terrible grind again.

I'm happy to answer any questions about the image that I didn't answer here.
thank you!

~~~
drucken
Very interesting! Sounds like a monumental effort! Though if it was only the
stitching that took the vast majority of time and effort, no doubt you or
others should be able to break this record yet again in time as software
progresses?

How long (and when - start date and time) did it take to get all those 96,000
images on Day 3, please?

~~~
nakedrobot2
It took 90 minutes to shoot one set of images and 60 minutes to copy those
images off the memory card.

Note: USB 3 card readers (that we were able to buy) are not really "usb 3" :-(

~~~
drucken
Thanks for the info! And ouch, regarding USB 3.0 SDHC card readers...

Separately, did you consider trying other stitching software, like PTGui Pro -
or have done for smaller shoots? It seems, at least in the past, that PTGui
used to be an order of magnitude faster with similar feature support and
results as Autopano Giga.

That said, Autopano Giga directly supports graphics processor acceleration,
which I am not sure PTGui can on Mac. Did you take advantage of this feature?

~~~
nakedrobot2
Hi,

I have used PtGui since 2004, It is great software. But it is not suitable for
stitching panoramas containing thousands of images for various reasons.

I did try it with a set of 12600 images and it failed to detect control points
on a few hundred images, so this was a no-go.

Autopano Giga supports GPU to some extent, but not for much, really. Mostly
for some display stuff, but not for rendering or any other really heavy stuff
(AFAIK).

Both Autopano and PTGui are really amazing programs, I like them both!

------
Peroni
Compiled a short list of the more famous sights for those of you not familiar
with the city (I'll add more later):

1\. The Shard (Tate Modern in the foreground) -
[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-33.1601...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-33.1601&view.vlookat=2.2475&view.fov=4.8933&imarkerath=-33.1601&imarkeratv=2.2475)

2\. London Eye -
[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-3.8135&...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-3.8135&view.vlookat=3.0432&view.fov=3.5602&imarkerath=-3.8135&imarkeratv=3.0432)

3\. Tower Bridge -
[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-38.7356...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-38.7356&view.vlookat=2.2507&view.fov=2.7320&imarkerath=-38.7356&imarkeratv=2.2507)

4\. Wembley Stadium -
[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=140.7253...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=140.7253&view.vlookat=0.8721&view.fov=11.6507&imarkerath=140.7253&imarkeratv=0.8721)

5\. Battersea Power Station -
[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=35.2192&...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=35.2192&view.vlookat=2.9160&view.fov=2.8203&imarkerath=35.2192&imarkeratv=2.9160%20#BTTowerView)

6\. Olympic Park -
[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-73.9268...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-73.9268&view.vlookat=1.1407&view.fov=2.7782&imarkerath=-73.9268&imarkeratv=1.1407)

7\. Big Ben & Houses of Parliament -
[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=6.4768&...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=6.4768&view.vlookat=2.4614&view.fov=3.3866&imarkerath=6.4768&imarkeratv=2.4614)

8\. MI6 Building -
[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=14.9167&...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=14.9167&view.vlookat=2.5274&view.fov=1.9034&imarkerath=14.9167&imarkeratv=2.5274)

9\. St Pauls Cathedral -
[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-43.8561...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-43.8561&view.vlookat=2.4828&view.fov=2.9417&imarkerath=-43.8561&imarkeratv=2.4828)

10\. Nelsons Column -
[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=13.4841&...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=13.4841&view.vlookat=5.1344&view.fov=1.4156&imarkerath=13.4841&imarkeratv=5.1344)

11\. Behind the iconic billboards in Picadilly Circus -
[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=16.9026&...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=16.9026&view.vlookat=6.5854&view.fov=1.2770&imarkerath=16.9026&imarkeratv=6.5854)

12\. Harrods Department Store -
[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=64.6214&...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=64.6214&view.vlookat=3.4378&view.fov=1.0196&imarkerath=64.6214&imarkeratv=3.4378)

13\. The British Museum -
[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-45.7275...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-45.7275&view.vlookat=7.9743&view.fov=8.5317&imarkerath=-45.7275&imarkeratv=7.9743)

~~~
lmm
There's a good view of Alexandra Palace, about 6 miles away:
[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-146.3290&#...</a>

------
darxius
I think I found the portal to Cthulhu's plane:
[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-97.0026...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-97.0026&view.vlookat=6.1219&view.fov=3.7128&imarkerath=-97.0026&imarkeratv=6.1219)

------
alanbyrne
These things always feel like they pan the reverse way than they should...

~~~
nakedrobot2
Sorry, this panorama uses the original "qtvr" style navigation. Google
streetview, maps, and Earth use "click and drag" navigation. There is
currently a religious war going on in the pano community about which one is
better. I tend to agree that the "click and drag" has become the standard.

~~~
CamperBob2
I guess I don't get what's so horrible about giving people a choice. This is
just a Quake-style mlook implementation at the end of the day, and gamers are
used to being able to select the mlook polarity.

But no, there has to be a jihad, and somebody has to "win."

------
grabeh
[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-164.6520&#...</a><p>Interesting
to see a shot capturing the progress of a car which helps determine the rate
at which the images were taken.

~~~
devonbarrett
Wouldn't you have to know its speed?

~~~
grabeh
Of course! I walk past that road everyday so could make an educated guess at
40km/hr. Mind you, my maths skills are poor so I won't be about to start
delving any deeper into the calculation!

~~~
nakedrobot2
It was more than one image per second, I can tell you that much. I forgot
exactly how quick it was.

------
sheri
I found buzby. :) The image is clickable, which brings up a sweepstakes
competition. Cute Easter Egg.

[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=168.9705...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=168.9705&view.vlookat=42.9767&view.fov=1.2811&imarkerath=168.9705&imarkeratv=42.9767)

~~~
Peroni
Busby #2 was a bit harder to find:

[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=174.1983...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=174.1983&view.vlookat=3.1216&view.fov=0.2259&imarkerath=174.1983&imarkeratv=3.1216)

------
pawelwentpawel
It's massive! I couldn't find my bedroom window but I've stumbled upon this
guy instead :
[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=172.0456...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=172.0456&view.vlookat=40.5469&view.fov=0.9885&imarkerath=172.0456&imarkeratv=40.5469)

EDIT: I'm wondering - if Google has to anonymise faces and registration plates
on street view, shouldn't BT be doing it too with this high-res panoramic
image?

~~~
tobylane
That looks like a setup, the One Show is a simple early evening show.

~~~
wr1472
next to him is an easter egg if you zoom out slightly
[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=169.0923...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=169.0923&view.vlookat=42.7815&view.fov=12.0664&imarkerath=169.0923&imarkeratv=42.7815)

------
shocks
Something funky going on here...
[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-96.8554...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-96.8554&view.vlookat=6.3616&view.fov=3.0874&imarkerath=-96.8554&imarkeratv=6.3616)

I don't remember architecture like this! :P

edit: Wrong link. -_- Intended to post upside-down building...

edit2: Corrected link.

~~~
CWIZO
Hmm, if you zoom out there are trees blocking the window. How did they done
this?!

~~~
shocks
Oops. I appear to have paste the wrong link. I intended to post an upside-down
building...!

~~~
hakaaaaak
You have now twice posted what I posted.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5256830>

I should thank you for your promotion of it! ;)

~~~
shocks
Yes it was an accident, heh. :) I meant to paste a link of an upside-down
building, but I paste yours (having just looked at it) instead. I can't find
the original link I was trying to paste any more! I feel kinda stupid now. >.<

edit: I found it!
[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-96.8554...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-96.8554&view.vlookat=6.3616&view.fov=3.0874&imarkerath=-96.8554&imarkeratv=6.3616)

------
platz
Very cool. I wish there wasn't as much HDR-like post processing in these
images. It kind of has an "uncanny valley" thing going on.

~~~
simcop2387
This was likely a necessity to make the zoomed out view look better. If they
didn't do that, it'd have all kinds of different lighting from being taken at
different times of the day.

------
drucken
There's a surprising lack of people and candid shots compared to the last
10,000-shot panaroma by 360 Cities several years ago!

I assume that has to do with the timing of the shots. These seem to have been
taken very early in the morning and towards the beginning of autumn (based on
clothing).

Unlike the 360 Cities panaroma, there are far less discontinuities this time,
though I have already found a significant one [1]. I guess the almost 5-fold
increase in shots is the source of the improvement.

Also, the depth of view in this panaroma is ridiculous! You can actually
clearly see individual people playing soccer or walking through very distant
parks...

[1]
[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-96.8425...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-96.8425&view.vlookat=5.7463&view.fov=9.9230&imarkerath=-96.8425&imarkeratv=5.7463)

~~~
simple1
According to a tower clock I found, this picture was taken at 1:40.

Edit: In the "low resolution" image, the clock reads 1:38. In the second level
of zoom, the clock reads closer to 1:41.

~~~
drucken
_According to a tower clock I found, this picture was taken at 1:40._

A tower clock I found shows approx. 09h10.

[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=161.5165...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=161.5165&view.vlookat=14.6570&view.fov=1.3723&imarkerath=161.5165&imarkeratv=14.6570)

------
newishuser
Wish it had google maps type navigation, wish the images weren't HDRd in post.

Other than that it's pretty cool.

------
jackm
If anyone's interested, the multicolored group of buildings you see when first
opening this page is one of Google's offices at Central St Giles. I've been
there many times for training/meetings/the free lunch and it's amazing.

They have a 360 degree gym at the very top, along with multiple roof terraces,
a huge cafeteria (of course) and soundproofed meeting rooms with funny names.

One of the office floors is styled like a submarine, complete with big metal
doors with valves on them. They share the space with multiple Media Agencies
and other companies, so you would never know it was there. It's quite surreal
and invokes a ton of envy.

------
dia80
Yikes! I live about 2 miles away and I can make out the garden tools on my
balcony.

~~~
bhickey
I was able to find my old flat, which was about two miles from BT Tower.

------
runn1ng
If you look into the black mark under its feet and let it zoom far enough so
it snaps into the level of another photo type, you can see the construction it
possibly stands on.

[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-53.1605...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-53.1605&view.vlookat=70.8474&view.fov=0.9926&imarkerath=-53.1605&imarkeratv=70.8474)

(move a little to the left I guess... it's not working 100% properly)

------
Pr1sm
It strikes me that in such a densely populated environment there is so much
under utilised space on the roof tops. Lots of opportunities for sheds and
roof gardens.

~~~
Peroni
I think this guy has done a pretty sweet job:
[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=171.2592...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=171.2592&view.vlookat=19.2424&view.fov=2.6562&imarkerath=171.2592&imarkeratv=19.2424)

------
petercooper
It strikes me how insignificant the River Thames is from there, I imagine most
folks not familiar with London would struggle to find it(!)

------
marcusmacinnes
A friend of mine Henry Stuart has done some amazing GigaPixel shots of London:
<http://www.sphericalimages.com/panoramas> if you like this kind of thing!

(Including some 360 degree video: <http://www.sphericalimages.com/videos> )

------
hakaaaaak
Someone's going to have a nice meal for two or be ringing two incredibly large
attention bells:
[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-56.2662...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-56.2662&view.vlookat=25.7578&view.fov=0.2132&imarkerath=-56.2662&imarkeratv=25.7578)

~~~
dcminter
That's Heal's department store on Tottenham Court Road. So neither, it's just
a display of wares for sale.

------
m4tthumphrey
Can't wait for someone to find a couple going at it on a tower block window.
Brandon style [1]

[1] [http://www.evilbeetgossip.com/2011/03/03/want-to-see-
michael...](http://www.evilbeetgossip.com/2011/03/03/want-to-see-michael-
fassbender-banging-a-girl-against-a-glass-window/)

------
adamman
I don't know how this guy is still standing.

[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-46.1228...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-46.1228&view.vlookat=23.3764&view.fov=0.5148&imarkerath=-46.1228&imarkeratv=23.3764)

------
guy_c
I hope no passwords on PostIt notes -
[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-92.6367...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-92.6367&view.vlookat=34.5444&view.fov=0.6409&imarkerath=-92.6367&imarkeratv=34.5444)

------
dennisgorelik
This guy's boots look huge:
[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=194.6209...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=194.6209&view.vlookat=68.8504&view.fov=0.4807&imarkerath=194.6209&imarkeratv=68.8504)

------
TheSwordsman
Interesting ...
[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-96.8192...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-96.8192&view.vlookat=5.9197&view.fov=4.6055&imarkerath=-96.8192&imarkeratv=5.9197)

------
pcg
Found a Buzby:
[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=174.0788...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=174.0788&view.vlookat=2.8315&view.fov=2.0906&imarkerath=174.0788&imarkeratv=2.8315)

------
4HTn77NR384oMjH
Busy man?

[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-64.2875...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-64.2875&view.vlookat=17.4529&view.fov=0.2919&imarkerath=-64.2875&imarkeratv=17.4529)

~~~
4HTn77NR384oMjH
Im guessing they mechanical turk (<https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome>) the
crud out of these images, taking 3 or 4 photos at the same time of day and if
there is a person in the first image then replacing it with the second, i came
to this conclusion based on the fact the whole damn city looks like its
apocalyptically empty once you get off the ground. None of the office
buildings have meetings on and very few windows have people in.

~~~
jermy
It's on a Sunday, and central London is always genuinely quiet. If you want to
find lots of people, look at more touristy places like the Southbank
[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-33.2466...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-33.2466&view.vlookat=3.5997&view.fov=0.8469&imarkerath=-33.2466&imarkeratv=3.5997)

------
alansk
Or from the Shard:
[http://static.guim.co.uk/interactivestore/2013/2/1/135968391...](http://static.guim.co.uk/interactivestore/2013/2/1/1359683910917/471154/index.html)

------
film42
Can you imagine if google acquired this company for street view?

~~~
Rexxar
BT = "British Telecom", it's not a small start up.

~~~
ollybee
company != BT company == 360cities.net They already work with google
blog.360cities.net/360-panorama-photos-google-earth/

------
bane
Oh I see, when you zoom in enough, it transitions to an ultra-close shot. A
little jarring, but you can see things much nicer that way.

------
joell
This would be the ultimate "Where's Waldo?"

~~~
LarryMade2
Found him!

[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=171.9737...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=171.9737&view.vlookat=40.5571&view.fov=0.4789&imarkerath=171.9737&imarkeratv=40.5571)

------
beyti
there's a half guy here:
[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-46.0400...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-46.0400&view.vlookat=23.7366&view.fov=0.7804&imarkerath=-46.0400&imarkeratv=23.7366)
#BTTowerView

~~~
duck
Seems like he can't keep up with his own self!

------
___1___
I found it rather creepy (yet cool) that I could easily read a number plate
miles away.

------
sideproject
is it just me? or can you actually spot a human being in this photo? It's an
incredible image though!

~~~
shocks
I found some human beings pretty quickly. :)

~~~
sdoering
Great, great image. Cool technology. But one question kept popping into my
head: What if someone was sleeping naked in his/her bedroom?

Would it be blurred?

~~~
madmat
champagne ? :)
[http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=92.3363&...](http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=92.3363&view.vlookat=35.1979&view.fov=0.4070&imarkerath=92.3363&imarkeratv=35.1979)

------
jstalin
Look kids! Big Ben! Parliament!

~~~
Toenex
Kids aren't really a recognised London .... ohh sorry I see what you did
there. ;)

------
infinitebeam
where are the people ? No one seems to be living in any apartments.

------
VaedaStrike
Found a very poorly photoshopped seam right off the bat. Kind of sad for
something claiming to be of such quality to go in and botch it like that. I'm
sure it's covering something to keep people happy, but did you have to do it
in such an ugly and obvious way?

~~~
mbrubeck
This is to be expected from giant images like this that are assembled by
automatically stitching together hundreds of smaller images. You'll see the
similar artifacts or errors on sites like Google Maps, for example
[http://www.moillusions.com/2006/04/google-maps-haunted-
road....](http://www.moillusions.com/2006/04/google-maps-haunted-road.html)

