h a l f b a k e r yIt's as much a hovercraft as a pancake is a waffle.
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I recently got a small 360-degree camera. It has the shape
of
a tall, slim rectangle with two bulbous lenses sticking out
on
its opposite surfaces, and comes with software that
combines
two photos taken through those lenses as if nothing was
there. (I.e. you don't see the camera body
at all.)
But until recently, it's been mostly good for shooting things
from an elf's
perspective. It has to stand on something flat. If I pan down
in the 360-degree-viewer, oh yeah, there's the desk or shelf
or foosball table or carpet or whatever it was I stood the
little camera on before running and hiding. Whoa, check
out that carpet. It's so lifelike!
So I bought a little stand to be able to place the camera at
human eye height. After removing the plate on top, and
the
little cushion around the top part, and turning the
telescoping vertical rod upside down so the thinnest part is
closest to the camera it's aaaaalmost invisible,
but there are always those three short black legs (feet?)
sticking out.
The right thing to do would be to make the three legs out
of see-through plexiglas. Each leg (foot?) is just a flat
rectangular piece
with two holes drilled in it, it's totally doable. I'm a bit
baffled that this doesn't exist yet.
Stabilizer cane camera support
https://youtu.be/4K6qVTzIq2I
[Sgt Teacup, Jan 25 2019]
Red Green
http://www.redgreen.com/
If the wimmin don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy [Sgt Teacup, Jan 25 2019]
S-mine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-mine
Proven technology [8th of 7, Jan 26 2019]
head massager that could be multilegpod
https://www.google....=head+massager+wire
[beanangel, Jan 27 2019]
[link]
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You could do what the Mars rovers (presumably) do: keep
the camera still but move the support structure out of the
way as you take a series of shots, then join it all up for an
un-interrupted panorama. |
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If I wanted to stitch together sequential shots, I could do
without the special lenses and just wear some sort of
zoetropic rig that rotates my phone around my head. Hm. |
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But yeah, more generally, that's what people do about this
currently -- just edit it out. But it would be nice if you
didn't have to. I think the people who buy these cameras
might also buy see-through tripods for them. I would,
anyway! |
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//..rig that rotates...//
A camera that did that actually existed back in the film days
(hand-held, not head-mounted). A quick Google was
unsuccessful.
But I get where you're coming from.
Ooh, alternative: take a photo of the ground (where you're
about to place your tripod) first, for later insertion (or built-
in software for the camera to do it on the fly, if you're
programmer enough...). |
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Question not the programming ability of She Who Must Be Obeyed, thou unworthy neophyte ... |
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A very sharp spike of hardened metal, driven into the surface below the camera with substantial force, could act as a support with a minimal radial span. |
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How about an inverse tripod consisting of three very thin
threads that you pin to the ceiling? OK, so perhaps not very
practical. |
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Or a neutrally buoyant camera, effecively a helium balloon
with several cameras stuck on its surface. Not good for windy
conditions, though. |
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Motorised self-balancing ball-wheel monopod |
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Ooh, ooh, sir, I know! I know sir! |
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What you need is a reflective mylar helium balloon, tethered
to the ground by a fine thread. Then take several
photographs of the balloon from different view points, and
then, uh, software. |
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If you want to make it to be really top management, you need to perfect the phrase "... and then that's just a bit of software, of course". |
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Hanging spider-web camera of a few strands of
fishing line seems to make the most sense indoors. |
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//If you want to make it to be really top management...// |
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Under no circumstances do I wish to be top management. My
company has no posts whatsoever that include the word
"manager". I myself am Chief Executive Optimist.
Management is an inhumane thing to do, especially to other
people. |
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Is this something pervy for Martians? |
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If the entire arrangement was placed on rotating
legs, (on motorised castors) they could be timed so
that they were always just out of camera view. |
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Due to inconsistent supply chains North of 60, we generally reduce/reuse/recycle à la Red Green. |
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Take the handle off of a stabilizer cane, attach your camera (with DuctTape, obviously), and you're good to go <see link> |
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What about suspending the camera from a drone ? Ideal for photographing airports ... |
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Too easy to shoot down. (provided you have
invested in Bofor's finest) |
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y'all need a mic stand (stage, not tabletop) with an adjustable boom arm. |
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What about a tripod where the legs were very thin in the camera view direction. It would still cast shadow but clear legs would have a light artifact. |
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I suspect a magician's box of tricks might have something of practical use. |
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Dismantling David Blaine and converting the resultant material to photographic accessories sounds entirely reasonable. |
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A large gooseneck-legged spider would be adequate. |
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// take a photo of the ground (where you're about to
place your tripod) first, for later insertion // |
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Or don't, and just automatically clone nearby ground
texture over where the tripod is seen by the camera. |
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A sillier option would be a monopod with three stabilizing
legs, which very briefly raises
all of its legs in unison just before the camera's self-timer
goes off. Then the legs are along the monopod's shaft and
therefore out of the camera's view at
the moment of capture. They snap back down before the
monopod+camera can tilt more than a degree or two. |
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The answer is obvious; a camera support based on the design of the German WW2 S-mine <link>. |
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On being triggered, a small propellant charge launches the camera vertically until the desired altitude is attained, at which point the shutter is activated. |
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// launches the camera vertically until the desired altitude is attained, at which point the shutter is activated // |
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S'good idea. Perhaps a spring-loaded mechanism could also work. It is quite hard to determine the exact apex of the flight (accelerometers are not sufficient). A distance sensor to the ground could work, but that would mean stabilizing the flight so that it always points exactly downwards, which wouldn't otherwise be necessary for a 360 deg picture. I suppose the modern way of doing this is just to make both fisheye cameras into high-speed video cameras, and take the frame where the motion is still. |
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Another problem is that after the picture, your camera is effectively dropped from head height onto the floor. |
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// hard to determine the exact apex of the flight // |
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The S-mine just has a tether attached to the launch tube; when it goes tight, the detonator initiates. |
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Perhaps a plurality of very thin multipod legs (like one of
those $1 head massagers they have on Ebay[link]) painted
chroma-key green. Then have a piezoelectric vibrator on
the camera that causes microsways large enough to move
the camera fully past the multipod filaments. The software
then paints the sway-revealed pixels onto the chroma-key
multipod leg spaces. |
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Gods, [beany], that's almost a good idea ... are you feeling alright ? |
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Sorry, we need to go and have a sit down for a bit ... |
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animatronic Buddha, with the object placed at/on the navel. |
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Tripod feet made of a suitable frequency covering Metamaterial would work but is probably a few decades away. |
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The basic idea is a drone with legs. |
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Okay, done laughing. Perhaps material transparency can
be done, but I think optical transparency or (perhaps
more accurately) rendering transparency. That would
involve color band on your tripod legs, probably
something like the "eye chart E" on a survey leveling rod
would work. |
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The camera would have software in its stitching function
that recognized the size and placement of the color
bands and edited through them, rendering them
transparent. Maybe? IDK, just a thought. |
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I had another thought, camouflage shoes (waders?). If the photo was in a bedroom , cute little baby sneakers could hide the feet. |
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With a bit of thought, I'm sure there is a perfect item(s) to fit into the scene and act as cover. |
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// It is quite hard to determine the exact apex of the flight
(accelerometers are not sufficient). // |
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A barometric sensor might work. Some of them can sense
altitude changes of much less than a meter. |
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[IT] look up, waaaay up^^^, and I'll call Rusty. (You are familiar with The Friendly Giant, right?) |
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In case you can't find the anno, quote-of-self: //Take the handle off of a stabilizer cane, attach your camera (with DuctTape, obviously), and you're good to go <see link>// |
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hexapod : take a picture with legs 1,3,5 extended, then one supported by 2,4,6. |
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//Friendly Giant// I don't think that got over to Ian's and them's side of town. Uncle Bobby ? |
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The main downside to the hexpod approach is that it
requires multiple photos so it can't take a photo of
something that is moving unless it moved the legs really
fast. But what if you had a tripod that very quickly
picked up (or retraced) all three legs, took the photo,
then replaced the legs before the camera fell too far. |
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Or combine that with the idea of the S-mine based unit.
Have the unit supported on a short tripod. Extend the
legs quickly to launch the camera, then retract the legs
to get them out of the picture as the camera reaches its
peek height. Then extend them fully before landing,
where they are again retracted to cushion the landing. |
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Of course the original idea is the most practical, and with
some anti-reflective coatings and a little post-processing
to account for the refraction of the light through the
known shape of the legs, those could be practically
invisible. |
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