GPXTag: GigaPixel Image Tagging
byOver the last few years I have featured many of gigapixel images captured and processed by Ronnie Miranda of Active Computer Services — from a panoramic view of Vancouver at dusk to a timelapse and even a billion pixel image of the first BC Lions game at BC Place last year.
These images can be taken by anyone with a digital SLR camera and the GigaPan EPIC instrument that Ronnie’s company (based locally) has developed. John Biehler even got his hands on one and captured amazing photos of downtown from North Vancouver and the PoCo Trail.
Photo credit: John Biehler
Last year Ronnie used GigaTag for tagging the Game 7 crowd on Georgia street and also the Whitecaps first MLS game at Empire. GigaTag is now being used by SI (Sports Illustrated) for the Olympics.
Existing platforms like GigaTag are Flash-based and each one has its own limitations. Therefore, these don’t work on the iPad and Flash will no longer be supported on Android devices beyond Android 4.0.x. However today, GPXtag was launched. It’s the new social media tagging platform for gigapixel images.
GPXtag has all the features of all existing tagging platforms combined… and more:
- Exclusive: FIRST and ONLY non-Flash gigapixel image tagging platform that works on iPad and Android devices
- Reach a wider audience by also engaging the growing market of tablet users with interactive gigapixel images
- Fully integrated with Facebook and Twitter
- Find friends, tag and share on Facebook and Twitter
- Exclusive: Include a comment or description in the tag
- Exclusive: Search for tags or tagged friends in the gigapixel photo
- Filter tags and display only your tags and your friends tags
- Capture a snapshot, then post to Facebook and Twitter or send via email
- Post or share a URL with the exact coordinates of your current view to Facebook, Twitter or via email
- Clean, simple, intuitive, elegant and fun interface
- Branding, customizable themes, skins, logos
- Optional bar for corporate sponsors, advertisements or announcements
- Statistics and reporting
- Exclusive: Use for science, education and research purposes. For example, as a medium of instruction where students can identify parts in a photo such as identifying and labeling parts of a plant.
To celebrate the launch of this new technology, developed in BC, Ronnie has offered up a prize pack for one lucky reader. This includes a GigaPan EPIC Pro (value $895) and a GigaPan Backpack ($119).
It does not include a camera but will compliment almost any digital SLR camera setup you have already. Ronnie has made this contest international as well so anyone can enter and he’ll ship the prize anywhere in the world.
Here’s how you can enter to win:
- Leave a comment naming what you would capture with the GigaPan system (1 entry)
- Post the following on Twitter (1 entry)
Follow Active Computer Services on Twitter, GPXTag on Twitter, and GPXTag on Facebook for more information. I will draw one winner at random from all entries on Monday, August 20, 2012 at 10:00am.
Update The winner is Stefan!
151 Comments — Comments Are Closed
This would be great for Tofino beachscapes!
I’d take it to Dallas Road in Victoria!
Stanly park from the lions gate bridge
The view of downtown from False Creek
I’d like to either do a pano of the buildings in the downtown core from Harbour Centre, or take a shot from somewhere central on the Howe Sound Crest trail in order to label (or let other’s label themselves) on the adjacent peaks
What wouldn’t I use it for! I would actively seek out opportunities to use it whenever I am travelling or for cityscapes in BC. What a wonderful prize!
Awesome everyday moments
view from grouse
Awesome!
White Rock promenade and beach on a summer’s day.
a sunset
I can think of so many uses.
– a picture of Vancouver at night from the Cypress Mountain lookout
– a picture of Vancouver from the corner of Robson & Granville
– a picture of the ocean from the top of a skyscraper
– a picture of the Lions Gate Bridge from the Stanley Park Dr bridge
– a picture of the Parliment building in Victoria at night
– a picture of the Golden Ears mountains from somewhere in Maple Ridge
– a picture of Bridal Falls ( or any of our many local waterfalls )
The list goes on and on.
I’ve just moved back to the city so I’m excited to check out my old favourite views and capture them with this.
What a cool gizmo! I’d love to take this travelling!
Bring it everywhere – capture cityscapes and landscapes. Macro scenes too!
I would use it during hikes in various places to capture mother nature at her highest peaks. I would also use it to capture images from high rises that over looks the city in various countries.
Landscapes of the beautiful rock formations on Hornby Island.
The view at sunset from up Grouse Mountain. One of the favourite photos I’ve taken is a panoramic from there – It’d be better as a Gigapixel.
Too late for fireworks night, but a shot of the city from Grouse would be awesome.
Any of the landscape in the beautiful Okanagan while I’m ATV’ing, Geocaching or watching the sunset from my deck!
It would be wonderful to have the ability to take pictures like that. The ideas are forming already
I would love to take this with me down to Seattle to capture the Space Needle, and Dale Chihuly’s Garden and Glass exhibit.
I would totally capture the other 90 degrees of this photo I took of English Bay from way up! 🙂
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rishadd/6868291421/
Sea to Sky highway!
I would take pictures of Arches National Park in Moab Utah. Hopefully I can get some evening shots one day down there. 🙂
View from Grouse Mountain.
Whitecaps game and travels!
I would capture a Hawaiian sunset
Deep cove views!
I love taking and viewing panoramic photos, and a Gigapan system would be a dream to own – aside using it all around Vancouver I’d take it traveling
I love playing tourist in Vancouver, so I would love to take pictures of the festivities, events (like the free dance lessons in Robson square) and the panoramic views in and around Vancouver (A shot of the north shore from the Vancouver Convention Centre and then a shot of Downtown from the park beside Lonsdale Quay). I would love to post it on Facebook where friends and families can zoom in or tag the places they’ve been. What an amazing piece of equipment!
This would have been great on my recent trip. The possibilities are endless. Locally I would take it up Grouse Mountain.
I’d like to use this cool technology to capture all the beautiful sceneries in BC (and anywhere else I travel to)!
I take some pics in Hawaii in September when we go for our holiday!
What a great new gadget to try
I’d take it to the beach and get a wicked sunset shot!
I would take pics at Stanley Park!
I’m going to an FC Barcelona game next month – how cool would that be to take shots of fans celebrating?!
Sunsets and sunrises at the beaches in Vancouver!
somewhere on the beaches maybe catching a big fish
Motorcycle rally, sturgis or maybe a little closer to home at the Oyster Run!
Wetlands at Fraser Foreshore Park.
the Alberta badlands
Sure would love to take it down highway one California golden gate SF to Big Sur and let Cole Weston have a try…
The best scenario for this sort of huge resolution is, in my opinion, a beautiful old European village, makes me want to travel!
I’d love to shoot Whistler from such a unique perspective.
I would take it to Niagara Falls and film the nature wonder
I have desired a Gigapan system since I learned about it in your last contest givaway.
Owning this device would free me from creating panoramic photos the hard(er) way. That is, manually moving the camera precisely enough for just enough overlap. This is much more work when doing HDR pans. With the Gigapan, I would also step up my resolution significantly too! My most ambitious pan to date is about 28000 x 5200 pixels.
What would I capture? Everything I can in glorious gigapixel fashion!
… like…
The city from Cypress Mountain and False Creek (I would re-do most of these photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9776782@N02/sets/72157621448885067/).
The GigaPan EPIC Pro and a GigaPan Backpack would become an essential companion to my camera gear!
Thank you for this amazing opportunity!
I would take this set up on my travels everywhere!
I would use this to take shots around Vancouver.
I would take pics of the view from Grouse Mountain
Any kind of bridge at night with the city lights
I would use it to take all sorts of shots in nature and landscapes.
Posted on twitter
https://twitter.com/freebreeluv/status/233669665463889921
Wow,what a great opportunity. I first saw a Gigapan photo taken at the BC Lion’s season opener last year. The detail was amazing… I actually found myself among 50,000 other fans. This equipment would allow me to take amazing photos at Long Beach and Combers Beach at low tide in Tofino. In the foreground would be amazing tidepools and in the backgroud would be sea lions, sea gulls and eagles. It would be an unbelievable photo.
At my next family reunion I could take a pic of all my extended family!
I would take pictures from a few different spots in Stanley Park
Would love to capture the sunrise before the Summer is over!
while boating on Okanagan lake some of the very cool search and rescue events that are planned for the next few weeks, very cool
This would actually be a gift for my father-in-law. He would capture landscapes, cities, and all sorts of other things, as he likes to take pictures everywhere.
the view from the Peak-to-Peak Gondola up at Whistler
some of the scenery between the mainland and Vancouver Island, while travelling on the ferry
I’d like to try it at a BC Lions game
I would love to use it during my travels and take landscape shots.
I would capture my next vacation
All the different kinds of food in Vancouver
I would take pictures of the city, from Grouse Mountain
Whistler and Blackcomb
I would take it out to the Kootenays and snap some giga’s of the Arrow Lakes!
I would be able to take the most amazing water view shot out of my Westend apartment from False Creek to Kits to the North Shore. No stitching required!!!
I’d look at capturing various spots around BC with it; Whistler, Tofino, the Rockies and more!
If I won it before my SE Asia trip, that would be pretty cool too!
I would take that baby to Japan in December
Grouse Mountain
I’d take beautiful pictures of my little niece’s face!
I would take it to Stanley park… get a nice panorama shot of North Van! And of course my children 🙂
I’d capture great panorama pics of Desolation Sound, just a quick boat ride away from where I live, the mountains look like they’re coming straight out of the water!
Take pictures of aircraft at airshows.
So many great place in BC to photograph with this baby. Also friends and family and all the sweet new babies in my family.
Wow, too many ideas!
Definitely take it with me anytime I went traveling or the next time I’m up on Whistler skiing, but I’d love to make more of a social aspect of the photos, like taking photos of sporting events and festivals. (although I’m now wondering if someone had done a gigapix of last years riots (vancouver hockey or even london), would it have helped police make more arrests? Interesting)
Candid portraits of family!
Nice family pics down at Stanley Park
I would love to take it with me to an upcoming trip to Montreal and take pictures of old Montreal.
Would use it on amazingly prosaic subject matter: epic gigapixel photos of my back yard, &c.
I would use it during events such as the Weekend to End Women’s Cancer, and other fundraising events! So cool 🙂
fishing boats at steveston
Always loved to take panoramas from Jericho or Locarno Beach of the container ships or whatever was going on in the inlet with the mountains behind. This equipment would be perfect!
Alta Lake in Whistler!
I love Victoria City and capture nice & gorgeous places surrounding it.
Gorgeous cityscape shots!
Tweeted
https://twitter.com/RebTheCatSitter/status/234769835559628800
I so would so capture the beautiful meteor shower in our skylines right now!!! 🙂
Probably the view of stanley park from lions gate bridge!
Would love to capture a trip to the Gulf Islands!
I’d capture my life, my surroundings, the vistas to places I travel to. I’d start a GigaTag blog! Thanks for this opportunity Ronnie and Active Computer Services.
Indonesia during my High School reunion!
Our wedding!
View of our beautiful city from Grouse
Victoria Inner Harbour
I’d start with day and night shots from Centennial Park in Burnaby, then probably YVR, and the PNE, many waterfront shots, limitless uses!
I’d use it to capture the devastation caused by my two-year old after a day of playing!
Travels from around the world…
I’d capture views of Pitt Lake on an early morning.
I would love to use this to take an image of the lake and the beach that we camp at every year.
I would go to the Grand Canyon and take pictures of everything, So Cool.
my kids
I would take pictures of the sailboat spinnakers in the Maple Bay Regatta.
I’d take this everywhere!
definitely a view of False Creek, so grateful to be living here my city is so beautiful providing us with so many awesome options and views
I’d love this for events like the Ride to Conquer Cancer!!
I love taking nature photography and going to festival/events. I’d definitely bring this together with my DSLR around.
grad
Mountaintop panoramas!
I would use it while on vacation, I love taking pictures of landscapes
tweeted
https://twitter.com/ginette4/status/235813031395856384
out in the BC parks!
The Windy City skyline
I would love this for my husband. It would be great to take pictures from Hollyburn peak up Cypress Mountain.
This would be great for pics of the okanagan and panoramic rocky mountains in the east kootenays!
My wife would love this prize! Perfect for all the landscape shots she is so good at!
Capture all the coast mountains!
I would capture the amazing sand dunes in Namibia when I got there in January 2013!
Got to take this up to Crown Mountain on a sunny day for a beautiful panoramic view of Vancouver & the Lower Mainland.
i’d love to use this on all my excursions
I’d capture the top of grouse mtn
Well, I’m going to Asia soon so probably ALL of it! But if I choose one place I’m going to Batad in the Philippines. AMAZING!
I’d love to use the GigaPan system to capture the ultimate panned landscape view of Vancouver, from a good vantage point, and the mountains in the background.
mountain biking
surfing and lanscapes in tofino
Maybe with this baby I would finally be able to take a picture of the downtown public library and be able to do the magnificent building g true justice.
English Bay!
Awesome to capture a mountain top view with this!
definately would use to show off the natural beauty of Canada
Would be interesting to capture Hells Gate from the tram car
Would capture the view from my childhood home.
One of my fav places is point Roberts! A shot of the bay and the islands would be awesome
Vacation photos
Possibilities are endless, would start with a pano down by the Fraser.
view of, and from, Grouse Mountain! =D
Vancouver’s skyline at night would be amazing!
Golden ears park.
There is a pedestrian bridge in my town that sits atop a hill that gives you a panoramic view of the entire town. I could take some great pictures with this.
I tweeted at https://twitter.com/1brisket/status/237304332347924480
A 360 from the roof.
The sunset from our balcony.
I live in the scenic and mountainous pacific northwest, so we never have a shortage of things to photograph.
I tweeted at https://twitter.com/1froglegs/status/237412289706352641
Nice shots.
The buildings of New West
What a great prize! I would capture memories of my two kids. Both are young so many more memories ahead. 🙂
I would love to take this on my upcoming trip to Bella Coola and take pictures of our beautiful coast and wilderness!
I would take it out to Wrightsville Beach, NC!