Uncategorized

Building 44 gets the ‘Tiny Planet’ treatment courtesy of Photo Sphere

24

Though Android 4.2 Jelly Bean contains a number of improvements to the Android operating system, one of the most notable new features is Photo Sphere. The new photo mode expands on Ice Cream Sandwich’s panorama functionality by allowing users to capture a full 360 degree view of the world around them. With folks just starting to get their hands on the improved Android 4.2 camera, we’re sure to see our fair share of Photo Sphere images over the coming weeks, but we couldn’t help but share these shots of Building 44, the Android headquarters at the Googleplex, captured by Thomas Devaux.

In one image we see the entire Android dessert lineup stationed on the Google lawn, the other reproduces the same image in a more extreme way, warping the scene into a literal sphere in the style of Tiny Planet. There are some spots in the pics where the stitching together of images looks a little off, but they remain pretty cool examples of what is possible with the Photo Sphere capabilities of Android 4.2, the same sorts of photos that Google will allow users to contribute to Google Maps Street View.

Anyone else out there have any cool Photo Sphere images of their own? We’d love to seem them!

 

Kevin Krause
Pretty soon you'll know a lot about Kevin because his biography will actually be filled in!

Android Overload: leaks, Galaxy S3 sales, Android 4.2 and more

Previous article

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 launching on AT&T November 9th

Next article

You may also like

24 Comments

  1. Nope I only have 4.0.4 #firstworldproblems lol

  2. Loaded 4.2 camera on my galaxy nexus. I’ve been playing with photosphere and it’s quite nice!

    1. but…but…but… iOS shoots panorama……

  3. Well, It’s pain in the arse to make right. Most of the times, you get really horrible results, even with tripods

    1. It is a really cool feature, but I haven’t had a single photo-sphere come out perfect.

  4. I played with the 4.2 camera on CM10, but it crashes all the time since it’s not ready for prime time until the AOSP roms also upgrade to 4.2 next week after src release.

    Love the new interface, but Photo Sphere definitely needs some improvement in the stitching department, as no matter how slow and deliberate you take the 20-something photos, the seams end up obvious. It either needs a way of detecting the seams and prompting for more photos to blend together, or, there should also be a high-quality photosphere mode where you take more photos to begin with, and/or they need to improve their stitching algo.

    1. It’s worked well for me when there is nothing right around where I’m standing. Anything up close ends up being stitched really bad, which I understand since a slight angle change makes things up close change drastically.

    2. Agreed. Works best on TW Roms.

  5. Best result ive gotten so far and still has stitching issues…..but it does give wide angle shots.

  6. I live a long way away from most of my family. Because of this most of them will never get the opportunity to come visit me. I used Photo Sphere this weekend to shoot every room in my house as well as my front and back yard and posted it all to my Google+ for my family to see. They were all very grateful to be able to virtually tour my home since they can’t see it in person.

    The stitching isn’t that great for indoor shots, epsecially smaller rooms, but with patience and practice it gets better.

  7. I think the game you’re thinking of is Little Big Planet. This type of photography is actually called Tiny Planet, it isn’t based on the game. AFAIK anyway.

    1. Go to the new gallery, then tap on the picture to make two options appear : Filter, and TinyPlanet (left and right)

  8. Android 42? Sounds cool but it aint so now is it.. !!!

    1. Android 42 will be a bio-electronic unit implanted in your brain. You think it, Android does it. °_°

  9. Is there an option for the planet style panorama? If not, how do I do that? It’s awesome!

    1. After you take a photo-sphere picture it pops up in the lower corner.

      1. thanks.

  10. anyway to get this on my gs3 now without rooting ?

  11. I’m so mad!! I want photosphere. LoL!! Hope I can get a port, because I don’t expect my Nexus 7 to be able to take good quality pictures with the front facing camera. LoL!!

    This is exciting.

  12. Their building needs a face lift. Or at least a power wash, there’s stains all over the concrete of that building. Other Google buildings get much better treatment. Bldg 44 is supposed to be a shrine, no?

  13. Nice, thanks for sharing!

  14. Meh. Not really psyched about this feature yet.

  15. This is a cool gimmick, but not a feature I will use very often.

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *