A Panel on VR at Siggraph

At the Guerilla studio portion of Siggraph today, I participated in a presentation on VR photography.
I introduced IVRPA (and our great new site), and showed some images from the Worldwide Panorama
and Panoramas.dk. I said that "photography and computers are colliding" and I believe that trend is
accelerating. Also presenting was, Gene Cooper (www.fourchambers.org), on "Light Painting in Caves", where he demonstrated
the light painting techniques that his company is using to illuminate caves in a national park.
Imagine making a pano in a pitch black cave, and shining lights on the walls and other surfaces in
a long time exposure. John Borden of Peace River Studios (peaceriverstudios.com) presented the PixOrb automated camera
rig for panorama shooting. One of the PixOrb users, Eric Hanson, has been using the unit to produce
gigapixel images of mountains -- the results are amazingly sharp. Eric is working with Greg Downing,
a veteran panorama photographer. Their site xrez.com should be up soon.
Given the Siggraph audience, I believe we should have collectively stressed the HDR possibilities
that arise from panorama photography.