101 comments

[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 168 ms ] thread
These things always feel like they pan the reverse way than they should...
Use keyboard to navigate. It's much better IMO.
Sorry, this panorama uses the original "qtvr" style navigation. Google streetview, maps, and Earth use "click and drag" navigation. There is currently a religious war going on in the pano community about which one is better. I tend to agree that the "click and drag" has become the standard.
I guess I don't get what's so horrible about giving people a choice. This is just a Quake-style mlook implementation at the end of the day, and gamers are used to being able to select the mlook polarity.

But no, there has to be a jihad, and somebody has to "win."

Yikes! I live about 2 miles away and I can make out the garden tools on my balcony.
I was able to find my old flat, which was about two miles from BT Tower.
Something funky going on here... http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-96.8554...

I don't remember architecture like this! :P

edit: Wrong link. -_- Intended to post upside-down building...

edit2: Corrected link.

Hmm, if you zoom out there are trees blocking the window. How did they done this?!
Oops. I appear to have paste the wrong link. I intended to post an upside-down building...!
This was one of the last errors in the image. I just didn't have another week left to fix this area. :-(
The zoomed-in image is off a bit from the zoomed-out image. Just compare the flags when you zoom in and out.
That'd just be M.C. Escher's place.
It's massive! I couldn't find my bedroom window but I've stumbled upon this guy instead : http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=172.0456...

EDIT: I'm wondering - if Google has to anonymise faces and registration plates on street view, shouldn't BT be doing it too with this high-res panoramic image?

Google doesn't HAVE to blur faces (except in only about two countries). They do it as a PR gesture, to please people. This has had terrible effects for photographers, who are often told that "they have to blur faces like Google does".
It strikes me how insignificant the River Thames is from there, I imagine most folks not familiar with London would struggle to find it(!)
http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-164.6520&#...

Interesting to see a shot capturing the progress of a car which helps determine the rate at which the images were taken.

Wouldn't you have to know its speed?
Of course! I walk past that road everyday so could make an educated guess at 40km/hr. Mind you, my maths skills are poor so I won't be about to start delving any deeper into the calculation!
It was more than one image per second, I can tell you that much. I forgot exactly how quick it was.
Very cool. I wish there wasn't as much HDR-like post processing in these images. It kind of has an "uncanny valley" thing going on.
This was likely a necessity to make the zoomed out view look better. If they didn't do that, it'd have all kinds of different lighting from being taken at different times of the day.
Look kids! Big Ben! Parliament!
Kids aren't really a recognised London .... ohh sorry I see what you did there. ;)
I found it rather creepy (yet cool) that I could easily read a number plate miles away.
Oh I see, when you zoom in enough, it transitions to an ultra-close shot. A little jarring, but you can see things much nicer that way.
where are the people ? No one seems to be living in any apartments.
There's a surprising lack of people and candid shots compared to the last 10,000-shot panaroma by 360 Cities several years ago!

I assume that has to do with the timing of the shots. These seem to have been taken very early in the morning and towards the beginning of autumn (based on clothing).

Unlike the 360 Cities panaroma, there are far less discontinuities this time, though I have already found a significant one [1]. I guess the almost 5-fold increase in shots is the source of the improvement.

Also, the depth of view in this panaroma is ridiculous! You can actually clearly see individual people playing soccer or walking through very distant parks...

[1] http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html?view.hlookat=-96.8425...

According to a tower clock I found, this picture was taken at 1:40.

Edit: In the "low resolution" image, the clock reads 1:38. In the second level of zoom, the clock reads closer to 1:41.

(comment deleted)
Hi,

This image was shot on a Sunday in October.

The London 80 Gigapixel (which I also made) was shot in August. I think that explains the relative lack of people, here.