Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => The Coffee Corner => Topic started by: Chris Kern on June 26, 2021, 12:25:43 pm

Title: Apparently They Forgot to Pack the Pano Head
Post by: Chris Kern on June 26, 2021, 12:25:43 pm
Interesting video (https://mars.nasa.gov/system/video_items/6029_TakingASelfieOnMars-1280.m4v) showing how the technical staff for NASA's latest Mars rover shot a "selfie" with its onboard camera.  No pano head involved, albeit getting the images for the stitch required more than a little programming of the robotic arm to which the camera is attached.  (The image was created to determine the effect of the Martian weather on the exposed surfaces of the rover.)
Title: Re: Apparently They Forgot to Pack the Pano Head
Post by: kers on June 26, 2021, 06:10:49 pm
Interesting video (https://mars.nasa.gov/system/video_items/6029_TakingASelfieOnMars-1280.m4v) showing how the technical staff for NASA's latest Mars rover shot a "selfie" with its onboard camera.  No pano head involved, albeit getting the images for the stitch required more than a little programming of the robotic arm to which the camera is attached.  (The image was created to determine the effect of the Martian weather on the exposed surfaces of the rover.)

As you can see on the video the lens remains at the same position- the arm is a pano head.
Title: Re: Apparently They Forgot to Pack the Pano Head
Post by: Chris Kern on June 26, 2021, 06:41:22 pm
As you can see on the video the lens remains at the same position- the arm is a pano head.

Exactly.  Absent dedicated hardware (i.e., a pano head), the NASA staff programmed a series of discrete sequential robotic movements, probably at least hundreds and perhaps thousands, then transmitted them up to Mars rover so the arm would move the optical system around the nodal point in order to create a series of images that could be seamlessly stitched.