Imagine if capturing a panoramic image of your surroundings was as simple as tossing a ball in the air. Computer Graphics Group, TU Berlin appearantly had the same vision, and created the Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera, a ball with 36 cameras, accelerometers and software to stitch it all together.

The ball will be demonstrated this year at SIGGRAPH ASIA 2011, but you won’t need to wait until December to see it in action. Below is a video demo the group published on their page:

The first thought that came to mind after watching the demo was HDR lighting using a sphere. This could make it incredibly easy for 3D designers to overlay models in real-world scenarios with realistic lighting.