A digital video camera that can see in every direction has been developed at
Gifu University in Japan. Until now the only way of getting a wide perspective
has been to use a fish-eye lens, which produces a distorted image.
The camera, shaped like a ball, is 28 centimetres in diameter with 20 faces,
each holding three lenses pointing in different directions. Each of the lenses
has a clear view that overlaps with some of the neighbouring lenses. Because of
the overlap each lens has a slightly different view of an object, so the camera
can automatically calculate the distance…
