Abstract

Gigapan methodology is a tool for the viewing of very large images stitched together from hundreds to thousands of individual images. It allows a scientist to responsively and interactively zoom between large contextual images and the smallest fine scale details. The technology consists of several parts: - an inexpensive commercial pan and tilt unit which will automatically take a mosaic of images in a regular pattern - software for stitching together those images into a single large image data set - a web site for selectively sharing of these Gigapan images - server software which allows real time web access to very large images We are interested in the utility of the Gigapan methodology for remote scientific field investigations. We have explored the utility of this for MER images and in this presentation we'll discuss experiments of its use for biological investigations associated with lavatubes and desert crusts. For image based explorations we will discuss the range of resolutions and total data volumes for a remote science team to distinquish parameters which would be significant in some specific biological field investigation.