Gigapixel

Say Hello to Gigapixel Photography

Mt. Haleakala, the dormant volcano that dominates the Maui landscape and attracts thousands of visitors every year, is getting some geek cred too.

The University of Hawaii’s Pan-STARRS program (Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System) is proudly detailing the design of a 1.4 gigapixel digital camera capable of snapping some candid photos of the night sky. The design not only has impressive stats but the utilization of a large number of small CCD’s increases data read speeds and minimizes impact of an occasional bad chip.

The primary goal of Pan-STARRS is to detect potential earth-impact objects presumably so they can call Bruce Willis and take care of the issue as only he can.

Sorry all you DSLR adopters out there – the ante has been raised by *just a bit* now. Still, Pan-STARRS probably can’t even use all the neat interchangeable lenses you bought with the kit. And we’re guessing the gigapixel camera might be a bit of a budget-buster for the prosumer out there.