THE first #5000 award made by the Glasgow Innovation Fund has gone to
Chris O'Kane and Richard McKelvie of Panomorph. The pair have developed
a photographic system which captures panoramic views and allows them to
be projected on to a large screen.
Present panoramic systems involve a great deal of technical fuss and
expense, according to Mr O'Kane and Mr McKelvie. Their system uses much
less technology and is more economical.
Their special lens compresses the image and allows panoramic views to
be taken with an ordinary hand-held 35mm SLR camera. Being hand held
means that aerial shots can be taken from a plane or helicopter.
Existing systems usually require a tripod because of the slow shutter
speed. In addition only one ordinary 35mm projector is required compared
with two or sometimes three on existing systems incorporating soft edge
matching to marry the two or three shots on screen.
The Panomorph system can be used not only on landscapes but on
anything panoramic and can capture moving images such as trains, boats,
rally cars, racehorses and so on which would normally appear as a blur
on normal panoramic photographs.
Mr O'Kane and Mr McKelvie maintain the effect produced by the standard
camera shot of, say, Loch Lomond is rather like closing one eye on the
view. The Panomorph system allows the photographer to shoot almost what
he sees and the effect on a 15ft-wide screen has to be seen to be
believed.
Mr O'Kane said: ''There never really has been a simple and effective
system that allows you to take panoramic images easily and use a
projection system that is so portable you can present them to a large
audience anywhere in the world. Effectively it is a panoramic system in
a suitcase.
''We are now looking for serious backing from interested companies.''
The two men have already carried out demonstrations for interested
parties and see a commercial future for the invention among tourism
bodies, visitor and heritage centres, in fact, any business which
requires audio-visual conferencing.
Mr O'Kane, an audio-visual technician, and Mr McKelvie, a Glasgow
Underground train driver with freelance photography experience, have
been working seriously on the project for two years and have opened a
workshop in Argyle Street, Glasgow.
The #5000 will go towards the costs of patenting the invention and on
a marketing campaign. The patent applications have been submitted.
The Glasgow Innovation Fund has been set up by Glasgow Opportunities
with the help of the TSB Group and the Glasgow Development Agency
matched with funding from the European Development Fund.
The aim is to help inventors, innovators, and small companies with
development costs. Awards of up to #5000 will be made every two months
particularly for clearly identified financial needs
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