PhotoPizza

Hello! My name is Vladimir Matiasevich. I work in R&D in hardware and software, integrating AI technologies for automating complex processes. Today, I will share the story of how one of my open-source projects was born.

The Beginning of the Journey: MEGAVISOR

I was a co-founder of the MEGAVISOR startup — a project that aimed to make internet content more interactive. The main idea was to combine several types of interactive visual representations of the objects and spaces into the one story, through hotspots (special hyperlinks that allow further navigation inside the media content) so that users could seamlessly transit from one visual form to another.

Imagine: you are viewing a spherical panorama of a museum interior and with one click, you transition to a detailed view of an exhibit in a photo-360 format. We wanted to make the interaction convenient and engaging, and we succeeded.

Of course, one of the primary areas of application for our platform had to be e-commerce. For online stores, it's crucial to have the ability to showcase products as accurately and in as much detail as possible.

The Problem and Solution

At the time of development, from 2010 to 2011, the market did not offer affordable solutions for capturing photo-360 of massive objects or even people. Moreover, the concept of photo-360 was not well-known, and it was often confused with native polygonal 3D or spherical panoramas. 

Our task was to create a universal solution that could handle a wide range of product categories: from electronics and large appliances to clothing, footwear, accessories, artwork, and even automobiles. This led to the idea of developing our own affordable equipment for product photography.

In addition, I aimed to create high-performance equipment. Therefore, we paid great attention to the speed of shooting and the quality of lighting. At that time, everyone used flashes, but I saw their drawbacks — slow recharge times and unstable brightness. I decided to use continuous light, like that typically used for video shooting. I chose the Canon 7D camera, which could shoot at 7 frames per second and had a large buffer for continuous saving of a sequence of 100 frames, enabling a fast shooting process.

We started small: I independently assembled a prototype from parts available on the domestic market. Later, my team and I made this TimeLapse:

Simultaneously, we searched for simple solutions so that photographers could test the technology without significant financial and time investments. We suggested rotating objects on equipment like cake stands, or even on ordinary paper.

After successfully testing the prototype and obtaining the first quality images, it became clear that we had something worthwhile. We decided to further develop this project and make it accessible to everyone to accelerate the popularization of our platform and it's content. I began searching for affordable and practical materials that would make the platform reliable, yet accessible and user-friendly.

After many experiments, I settled on acrylic glass. It could withstand heavy loads, was hard enough for metal bearings. Of course, PVC and plywood were also suitable, although they had their drawbacks, but they were significantly cheaper and well-suited for budget solutions.

By the way, regarding the bearings — my choice was based on availability, and I often used bearings from roller skates. 

The control block was based on Arduino. For the drive system, I chose the NEMA 17 motor with a pulley for the belt and silicone plumbing gaskets.

Thus, PhotoPizza was born — an open project that enabled photographers to create full-fledged photo-360 content without significant costs. And which can also be used for shooting video and photogrammetric 3D scanning.

Since then, PhotoPizza has become a solution that handle not only products showcases, but also allows viewers to feel maximum engagement as if holding the product in their hands. The project received support and recognition among creative professionals, and I am proud to have been part of this journey to create a new standard for interactive content.

Later, I decided to rewrite the firmware for the control block and replace the controller with ESP32, choosing Espruino — a development environment that allowed using JavaScript. The ESP32 was faster than ARDUINO and had built-in Wi-Fi. This enabled the creation of a control application based on Web technologies:

We photographed motorcycles on the PhotoPizza D1200 turntable with a load capacity of 500 kg

Areas of Application

• Photo-360
• 3D Scanning (Handheld Laser Scanner)
• 3D Scanning (Photogrammetry)
• 360 TimeLapse
• Video

Developed Models of Rotating Platforms

• V1 D340 - external control unit (ARDUINO), diameter 340 mm, load capacity 60 kg
• V1 D480 - external control unit (ARDUINO), diameter 480 mm, load capacity 90 kg
• V1 D700 - external control unit (ARDUINO), diameter 700 mm, load capacity 120 kg
• V2 D340 - integrated control unit (ARDUINO), diameter 340 mm, load capacity 60 kg
• V2 D480 - integrated control unit (ARDUINO), diameter 480 mm, load capacity 90 kg
• V2 D700 - integrated control unit (ARDUINO), diameter 700 mm, load capacity 120 kg
• V3 D340 WiFi - external control unit (ESPRUINO), diameter 340 mm, load capacity 60 kg
• V3 D480 WiFi - external control unit (ESPRUINO), diameter 480 mm, load capacity 90 kg
• V3 D700 WiFi - external control unit (ESPRUINO), diameter 700 mm, load capacity 120 kg
• D200 WiFi - external control unit (ESPRUINO), diameter 200 mm, load capacity 15 kg
• D250 WiFi - external control unit (ESPRUINO), diameter 250 mm, load capacity 20 kg
• D800 WiFi - external control unit (ESPRUINO), diameter 800 mm, load capacity 200 kg
• D800 WiFi Disassemblable - external control unit (ESPRUINO), diameter 800 mm, load capacity 200 kg
• D800 WiFi 2 motors - external control unit (ESPRUINO), diameter 800 mm, load capacity 250 kg
• D800 WiFi 4 motors - external control unit (ESPRUINO), diameter 800 mm, load capacity 300 kg
• D340 Hanging - external control unit (ESPRUINO), diameter 340 mm, load capacity 30 kg
• D480 Hanging - external control unit (ESPRUINO), diameter 480 mm, load capacity 50 kg

PhotoPizza Repository

• PhotoPizza on GitHub.

Publications

• PhotoPizza on Habr (Russian) — about the version made of foamed PVC
• Bicycle Shooting (Russian) — experience capturing bicycles in 360 photo format

Social Media

• Instagram — a visual story of creation.
• YouTube — watch our videos on equipment assembly.

My Roles in the Project

• Concept Author
• Photographer (Shooting illustrations, photo-360s for examples)
• Software Developer (JavaScript)
• Hardware Engineer (Design, Development)
• Designer (UI/UX)
• Videographer (Shooting instructional and promotional videos)
• Video Editor
• 3D Modeler
• 3D Visualizer (Preparing 3D scans, visualizations for examples)
• Writing articles, instructions, technical documentation

Acknowledgements for Significant Contributions to the Project

• The project logo was developed with the help of friends from the design studio Hattomonkey.
• Roman Savrulin participated in creating the firmware for ARDUINO.

Some Other Similar Projects

• СomplexScan AUTOBOX v1 — professional equipment for photogrammetric 3D scanning, photo-360, video
• СomplexScan Box B1 — professional equipment for shooting glossy items, bottles.
• СomplexScan V1D1000 Transparent — professional equipment for photogrammetric 3D scanning, photo-360, video
• СomplexScan V2D1000 Transparent — professional equipment for photogrammetric 3D scanning, photo-360, video
• PhotoSnail — an open project for a motorized slider for TimeLapse and video shooting.
  Soon, a detailed description will be available...