September 20, 2010   

The Pittsburgh Gigapanorama Project, which produced a humungous 360-degree portrait of Pittsburgh last fall from atop the U.S. Steel Tower, is doing it again this Thursday and is inviting everyone to join in the picture.

Initiated by David Bear of the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry and assisted by the GigaPan crew from the Robotics Institute’s CREATE Lab, the Gigapanorama will be created from thousands of photographs that will be taken between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Thursday. People are invited to study last year’s Gigapanorama and find a spot where they would like to pose for this year’s image wearing whatever colorful clothing or outlandish costume they think might help them stand out.

They hope to have the image completed and online by late October.

For information about the precise timing of Thursday’s shoot and how to stay in contact with the project leaders, visit the project site. The GigaPan camera system was developed by the CREATE Lab and NASA’s Ames Research Center. On Nov. 11-13, Carnegie Mellon will host the Fine International Conference on Gigapixel Imaging for Science, which will explore how GigaPan and similar systems can be used to enhance scientific research and education.