Is your cousin Sheryl in this crowd? Or your crazy neighbor Marvin?

You can click on the portion I've cropped out of this photo from the inauguration to enlarge it a wee bit, but if you really want to enlarge it, see below.

by Ken

My friend Paul passed this on, with the note: "This is scary -- kinda puts an end to the old saying, 'you can get lost in the crowd.'"

This is unbelievable. The ability to take one photo of a large group and yet to single out any one person? You have to see it. Click on the link below and see for yourself. Read the instructions below.

This is a photograph of 2009 Obama Inauguration. You can see IN FOCUS the face of EACH individual in the crowd!!! You can scan and zoom to any section of the crowd. Wait a few seconds. Double click anywhere. And the focus adjusts to give you a very identifiable close-up.

The picture was taken with a robotic 1474 megapixel camera (295 times the standard 5 megapixel camera). That is some camera! Everyone attending could be scanned after the event, should something have gone wrong during it.

Click on:
http://gigapan.org/viewGigapanFullscreen.php?auth=033ef14483ee899496648c2b4b06233c

NOW I KNOW THIS MAY INITIALLY SEEM
ALARMING, BUT I'M THINKING . . .

No need to be a Debbie Downer about it, and assume it necessarily has to be a bad thing. With just a bit of thinking, I’ve come up with a bunch of ways it could be a swell thing for the folks captured superphotographically. Once individuals' identities are established, with just a bit of additional background research (and you have to figure that people who have such fancy cameras have, you know, “people” at their disposal to do this), think of the many ways those individuals could be beneficiaries:

*With the address, it would be possible to send them gifts of lovely baked goods -- "sweets for the sweet."

* With basic bank-account info, it would be possible to make a modest deposit "to help out with those nasty expenses" -- just 'cause you're you!

* Cat owners, for example, might be sent coupons for a year's supply of their preferred kitty litter. (It shouldn’t be that hard for those research people to find out which brand they prefer.)

* Helpful travel tips (and who, for example, confronted with a suitcase and a huge pile of stuff to cram into it, can't use advice from expert packers?) plus lists of special bargains and "things to see" might be sent to people who are planning trips.

* Friendly reminders could be sent to people who are found to have overdue library books, or past-due bills, because you know how those things can get out of hand and really bite you in the behind. (Perhaps the research people might turn up generous benefactors willing to help out with some of those past-due bills.)

* Qualified and affordable tutors, as screened by the research team, might be recommended to parents of children who are having difficulties with some of their schoolwork.

* Amateur photographers -- and these days, what with camera phones and tiny digital cameras, who isn't an amateur photographer? -- might benefit from suggestions from skilled professionals of how to improve the quality of their pictures.

* The profiles of individuals who are found to be "single and looking" could be cross-matched for compatibility, and the names of, say, five potential matches e-mailed to them!

It goes on and on! Sometimes it just depends on how you look at stuff.

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