The technology presented here has been designed from the ground up to help advance research, health, science, and educational applications. Below are a few of the capabilities and examples of how the technology is already being used by researchers.

• New Perspectives
  Limitations with depth of field, narrow fields of view, and limited resolution often prevent researchers from seeing the full perspective and detail in a specimen. For example, the view through a microscope provides only a partial area of the specimen in focus at any given time. Cameras used with microscopes and macroscopes are limited in resolution. With the technology presented here, we provide researchers with the ability to explore the full depth of field, full detail, and entire specimen in a single seamless explorable view.
• Virtual Access
  Virtual online specimens, accessible simultaneously by multiple viewers, with annotation and collaboration capabilities. This capability may seem obvious, but it is a critical element to unlocking the door to collections around the world, expediting study of time-sensitive specimens through remote viewing, and provides a means of public access and discourse.
• Comparison Studies
  Explore, compare, and contrast multiple subjects simultaneously. Often it is during the act of comparison itself that the salient features emerge, leveraging the strength of gigapixel-scale imagery. Traditional photographs, with the need to select salient features at capture time, fall short for this task. The two subjects can be from different locations, or different times. The viewer is effectively in two places (or times) at once.
• Time-lapse
  Exhaustively recording a changing subject for later study, e.g. a small paleontological specimen before fixative is applied, a growing plant, embryo, or culture.

Collaborating with Leading Institutions

We have ongoing collaborative relationships with the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Carnegie Mellon University, xRez.com, the Siggraph Studio, MAKE, the Exploratorium, the National Park Service, and GigaPan. The goal of the collaborations is to advance research and education through development of new imaging technologies and techniques.

Entomology Studies at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History

Researchers are using the GIGAmacro technology to assist research in the department of Invertebrate Zoology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. The technology provides new methods of documenting, exploring, comparing, presenting, and sharing specimens with other researchers worldwide.

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New Revolutionary Tools for Studying Honey Bee 'Brood' Diseases

Researchers are capturing gigapixel time-lapse imagery of healthy and diseased honey bee colonies to better understand the progression of 'brood' diseases such as American Foulbrood and Chalkbrood.

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