Gigapixel image

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A gigapixel image is a digital image bitmap composed of one billion (10⁹) pixels (picture elements), more than 150 times the information captured by a 6 megapixel digital camera. Current technology for creating such very high-resolution images involves making mosaics of a large number of high-resolution digital photographs, or uses a film negative as large as 9"×12" (23 cm×30 cm), which is then scanned with a high-end film scanner. Recent developments^{[citation needed]} have demonstrated the practicality of developing scanning cameras capable of creating a gigapixel image in a single sweep of a scene.

Gigapixel images are of particular interest to the following:^{[citation needed]}

• Physicists viewing the results of supercomputer simulations
• Viewers of satellite composite images for various purposes, including agricultural policy, land use planning, and military intelligence
• Artists
• Health care providers, such as pathologists, for virtual microscopy utilizing whole slide images (digitally scanned glass microscope slides, also called virtual slides)
• Visual effects industry, where gigapixel images can enable the creation of immersive digital environments
• Curators and Art Historians to better study artworks

[edit] See also

• Largest photographs in the world
• Powerwall - Computer technology for interactive gigapixel displays
• HD View - Microsoft high resolution image viewer plug-in (Windows only - IE & Firefox)
• Zoomify - Flash based high resolution image viewer
• FSI Viewer - Flash based high resolution image viewer and Java based server
• IIPImage - opensource client/server system for high resolution image browsing.

[edit] External links

• The Gigapxl Project - A custom-built Gigapixel camera, by Graham Flint[1][2]
• Tom Swift's New Camera, Ready for Space and Spies - about Clifford Ross, in the New York Times December 9, 2004.[3]
• gigapan.org - Multi-gigapixel panoramas
• Gigapixel images used for visual effects
• Gigapixel images entirely visible
• Extreme Resolution Coral Reef Images
• Commercial Gigapixel Photography Studio