Don't look down

[peteryoung]

It's strange how many people think the world's tallest building is still the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which stand at 452m. It isn't: since as long ago as 2004 the world's tallest building has been Taipei 101 in Taiwan, standing at 509m. But three weeks ago the exterior of the Burj Dubai was completed, standing at a mind-boggling 818m. If these numbers mean nothing and you need some idea of scale, look here:



I took this photo a few days ago taking off from Dubai, and I've only enhanced the colour slightly. As aerial shots go it's one of my personal favourites, alongside this view of Manhattan that I took a few years ago.

Comments

[hal-obrien.livejournal.com]

This post, which has a bunch of comparison of the Burj to things (including plunked down in Manhattan) is pretty cool.

[peteyoung.livejournal.com]

That is excellent. And while we're on the subject of free-standing structures it's worth noting how Toronto's CN Tower is often left out of comparisons, such as this one (http://uptowndowntownnyc.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/tallest-buildings.jpg).

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Wow! And here I thought the CN Tower (about 550 m) was impressively tall. That's incredible.

Nice photo, too. I reckon you're in a position to take photos from an airplane without someone starting to yell, "Look out! He's got a camera! He must be a terrorist!" :(

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

Have you considered taking two photos of landscapes in quick succession, keeping the horizon in the same place? Because it would be very cool to have hyperstereos of some of these plane-taken aerial photos.

[peteyoung.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a good idea... as you're the expert on this I might end up begging you for a new icon.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

OK. You need to take them close enough together that they'll still resolve, and far enough apart to get a 3d effect. Which is a bit hard to work out for such large hypers. So the way people normally do it is to take several photos in quick succession (try to keep the horizon level and in the same place) and then work out afterwards which ones work best as a 3d photo.

The best program for aligning them is a piece of freeware called StereoPhotoMaker. Having said that, if you send me the photos I'd be very happy to do the alignment.

Once they're aligned you can output versions in any of the main stereo formats (which are side by side pictures for viewing with a viewer or free-viewing, anaglyphs for red-green or red-blue glasees, and interlaced or alternating for polarised monitors or shutter glasses).

For sticking them on the internet, YouTube has got a brilliant tag for videos which allows people to upload a cross-eyed video and YouTube shows it with an interface that allows people to choose their viewing method. Here's a video explaining it. There's a drop-down menu to pick your viewing option. Nothing that good on the photo sites yet but as the YouTube tag came from a Google 20% project I'd hope to see something similar in Picasa at least very soon.

[hnpcc]

Heh, the Amazing Race episode screened last week had "The World's Tallest Building" as the clue (but added 'fly to the Persian Gulf' to help a bit. And at least one team tried to buy plane tickets 'to the Persian Gulf'. Cue some extremely confused Cambodian sales staff.) At least half of us were wondering which building was tallest these days. That is a spectacular photo.

[ninebelow.livejournal.com]

I flew out of Dubai last week and I did a proper double take. It is just monsterous.

[peteyoung.livejournal.com]

Which day? This was on the 20th, BA108.

[ninebelow.livejournal.com]

EK009 on 22nd.

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

Wow, superb photo! Wow, mind-boggling scale!

[twinfair.livejournal.com]

That's cool, it looks like a Simcity screen capture in fact I thought it was when I first saw it. All the tall building in a strip like that is interesting. Good picture.

[vicarage.livejournal.com]

So they've finally decided to finish it. For years they've been cagey about its final height, planning to slip in more floors to foil the opposition.

I didn't realize you were still flying, how much work are you getting?

[peteyoung.livejournal.com]

I've only worked a few months this year as I've taken quite a bit of unpaid leave. And I start a 50% contract in mid-November, which means 28 days on/off.

PS. If you have foreign travel plans for Xmas/New Year, I'd advise not booking on BA. We've not been ballotted yet but the mood is such that there will very likely be a strike. I'll update when I hear more.

[vicarage.livejournal.com]

This comparison shows how it bulks up too, blimey!