One look at the Ricoh omnidirectional camera that allows it to capture a 360° photo which will subsequently be followed by it sending that image to your smartphone, will more or less remind you of that weird snake-like creature in Prometheus that proved to be the precursor to the famous Facehugger. Good thing this omnidirectional camera will not spurt out acid-blood when broken in half, as all that will be revealed would be a bunch of circuitry. Right now, it is under development by Ricoh, where it captures a full 360° panoramic image in just one shot.
Sporting a couple of fish-eye lenses, each will cover 180 degrees, and the camera will perform the “stitching” bit later on by combining both images, and with a decent WiFi connection in the vicinity, it will then send it over to your smartphone or tablet. The practical aspect of it does seem to weigh a whole lot less than the artistic point of view, don’t you think so? Hence, we have no idea at all as to how much this will cost should it even make it to store shelves.