The 2014 panoramic ball camera that captures everything in every direction when thrown is Panono. Designed by German engineer and photographer Jonas Pfeil, Panono was a spherical camera intended to make full 360-degree photography easier and more spontaneous.
The ball contained 36 outward-facing cameras. When tossed into the air, Panono used sensors to determine the right moment to trigger all of them, capturing the surrounding scene from multiple angles near the top of the throw. Software then stitched those images into a single spherical panorama.
The resulting image had a reported resolution of 108 megapixels and could be viewed interactively, much like a small virtual-reality scene. The concept grew from Pfeil's computer-engineering master's thesis and was developed through crowdfunding and early technology demonstrations.
Panono is sometimes confused with an ordinary action camera or a handheld 360-degree camera. Its distinctive feature was the throw itself: height gave the camera a temporary unobstructed viewpoint, allowing it to record both the ground and the horizon around it.