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sup /diy/ngbats I want to build a camera array that gives 360 degree FOV and is capable of being streamed by something in the same size class as a raspberry pi. Can anyone give me some advice? I figure the cheapest way to do this would be to find a decently powerful SOC and somehow hook up a bunch of cheap cellphone cameras (idk how to source small cameras for embedded electronics) I don't know jack soykaf about electronics, or even where to source them, let alone the proper names for what I' trying to describe any advice would be appreciated

Why not just webcams? They're common and there should be software readily available to deal with them.

>>899 The only issue with the cellphone cameras is that they all have terribly nonstandard interface and the electronic knowledge required to connect them to some SOC is quite difficult. >>901 is your best bet If you have enough money this company is doing some cool things around 360° video

Have a look at how the Pano Pro works. You use one camera with a curved (parabolic?) mirror to get a single image which you then unwrap into a 360-degree panorama.

>>903 Probably the best way. >>901 Probably a cheaper way, especially if you can't build the controls for a mirror like that. Although, with the right software and two 555s and a servo, you could probably control the mirror fine- that's not a bad electronics intro- do you have any technical background at all? If you want to stream data from webcams, my advice is to not use a raspi, its USB stack is crap (as in, it has documented bugs but the chip manufacturer gives 0.0 soykafs). You could probably use something comparable, though (cubieboard, banana pi- not actually sure raspi 2 has any bugs), many go ahead and compress data onboard so you don't have top sweat bandwidth- 480 Mb/s on a single port is fine.

>>899 you can find cheap camera modules and other parts on aliexpress. i have no idea though how to stitch the individual video streams together.

Either webcams or full-blown FPGA + some standard camera modules. There is also a variant with 1-2 highres cams and fisheye lens (and nonlinear postprocessing). FPGA variant is the best because it allows syncronization. Webcams won't be in sync. Webcam approach is a couple of orders of magnitude cheaper and easier.

This will get you 360 degrees in 1 axis. You could also try sticking a clear marble in front of the lens.