C.K. ZARB TALKS TO PHILIPPE HURBAIN
V-technologist, panorama enthusiast and kite flyer extraordinaire
by Marco Lüthi & C. K. Zarb
Tell us about your background, Philo.
I'm 45, French, and live near Paris where I work. As an electronics engineer, I design communication boards (ISDN and ADSL) in a small company. I have always been fascinated by techno-toys, which I often created. I built my first robot: a wall-avoiding car, wire programmable, using components unsoldered from old IBM mainframe boards. I was 17 year old then and assembled my first computer in a time where 16k octets were considered a huge memory. I was a pioneer in digital camera usage: my first one was a Logitech Fotoman (376 x 284 resolution), black and white! Then came an Apple Quick Take 100 and the range of Nikon Coolpix 9xx cameras.
What inspired you to create robots with Lego and what is Legoís MindStorms?
My interest in Lego comes and goes. The Lego community have terms for this: a period of disinterest is called Dark Ages; an AFOL is an “adult fan of Lego” (the best way to get it touch with AFOL community is Lugnet). I came out of my first Dark Ages 15 years ago with when I discovered Lego Technic. I used it to build an equivalent of my old wall avoiding car. That was my first Lego ‘bot’. But there were no standard Lego parts for what I needed and I didn’t have time to learn how to build complicated Lego models so I tired of it, diving into my second Dark Ages. Two years ago Lego offered a new wonderful set, MindStorms Robotics Invention System, which came with a programmable brick, sensors and motors. I bought one for my daughter. As I played with it much more than she did, I promised I would buy my own set, as soon as the new version of the kit would be out. Unfortunately, it’s still not available in France.
When did you first get the idea to use Lego robotics in conjunction with panoramic photography?
It was mainly a coincidence. I wanted to experiment automated panorama shooting and at the same time, I became more fluent in Lego construction.
What sort of feedback have you been receiving from VR photographers?
Some VR-photographers were enthusiastic and at least two actually built one… Of course it couldn’t interest everyone: as a professional photographer, it’s difficult to go and see a customer with a Lego pan-head ! I had the same kind of mixed reactions with my virtual tripod method: trying to level your camera while keeping your plumb line steady, doesn’t give you a very professional look.
In his book, Microserfs, Douglas Coupland says that Lego has influenced a whole generation of techies because it anticipated a future of pixilated ideas like: ‘a zebra build of little cubes’. What do you think about that?
I don’t now if it has so much importance in our way of thinking. And with today’s screen and CCD resolutions it is less and less of a concern. A few things still require pixel artists though, such as computer icon creation or Web button design, as a single wrong pixel can ruin the entire appearance. Lego pixelation is what makes model conception so hard. In the real world, to mesh two gears together you simply space their axles the right distance apart. In Lego’s world, you need to work with predetermined hole spacing and fixed gear sizes.
What sort of application do you envisage for your robots?
Creating robots that are useful is of course much more challenging than ones intended to work in limited environments. A new version of Panobot is slowly maturing in my mind. I now target multi row panorama shooting. It may take a long time before it’s ready: carefully balancing camera weight (which is heavy for Lego motors), requires a lot of planning. I’d like to use readily available parts so that it could be build by anyone who whishes to.
How did you first discover panoramic photography and when did you first get passionate about it?
A few years ago, my uncle showed me panoramas he made with carefully assembled photographs. That looked promising, but technical perfection was impossible with such tools. So when I got my QuickTake 100 and Photoshop 3, I made my first panorama. It was a nightmare: the small tele lens forced me to use a sequence of many images but the camera could only hold eight at a time. I had to download the images on to a computer, in the middle of shooting, using a ‘sloooow’ serial cable! The camera had no exposure lock and I had to compensate for that in Photoshop – at that time, I was an absolute beginner.
The result was not that bad, I had caught the virus! I then bought PhotoVista, which is easy to use but has little control over the process. I took control back with Panorama Tools and at the same time got a fisheye lens for my Coolpix. After climbing a rather stiff learning curve, I was ready for fully spherical panoramas.
What is your most memorable experience associated with panoramic photography?
Shooting kite panoramas. Once again, combining two passions: kite flying and making panoramas. It’s very exciting to create something really new. The adrenaline rush you get when the wind drops and your expensive camera comes down much faster than you’d like!
How often do you interact with people who share your interests?
Very often by mail. Mainly as a member of the Panorama Tools mailing list, but I am also contacted by people who need help getting started in the panorama business. The questions I get asked often trigger new experiments, such as rhombicuboctaedron panorama printing (dubbed ‘philosphere’ by some V-artist friends).
Sometimes in real life meetings such as the one organized last year by François Moraud (Aquimage), I demonstrated Panobot and shot this table panorama. This inspired F’raide (Rêveurs du Réalités) to build a Panobot too!
What kind of technology do you think is best suited to record panos for the Internet?
I concentrate on two technologies: iMove plugin and Java PTviewer. Each one has some drawbacks: some users don’t want to download plugins, and Java performance on low-end machines is not as good as native code. But as I provide two options for each of my panoramas, I expect that most surfers can use at least one.
I hope that Microsoft’s recent announcement of lack of Java support in Windows XP will not be detrimental to PTviewer!
What do you think about IPIX and its patent?
It’s incredible that a patent has been granted for something that is obvious to a person with modest mathematical background. Hopefully the European Patent Office will not make the same mistake .
Which panoramic would you be most likely to record if you had the opportunity?
A panoramic view of Paris from the Eiffel Tower. As I live nearby that should be easy, however, days when the atmosphere is clear enough to have a good, distant view, are not very frequent. The technical challenge (huge parallax error) is interesting too.
Tell us about the virtual tripod.
The concept first came about through a discussion with a co-worker who’s as fond of panoramas as I am.
Its biggest advantage is not having to scrub the tripod out of your panos! Low lighting conditions and high winds make it unusable and it’s less precise than a tripod. But its light weight and small size allow you to carry it and make panoramas wherever you go.
On your Website, you expressed your dislike for fancy graphics, animations and complex Web pages that are difficult to navigate. How do you reconcile this view with your penchant for digital technology?
I’m indeed much more a V-technologist than a V-artist! Technology in Web design should help access information; very often ‘beautiful’ interfaces are there just to mask a lack of content…
Before we wrap it up, is there anything else you’d like to add?
Thanks again to Helmut Dersch, for all the time and energy he offered the world through Panorama Tools!
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