U2′s 360° juggernaut of a world tour finished up in Moncton, Canada last week ending a 110 concert run around the world. Whatever you think of the band, it’s hard not to admire the scale of ‘The Claw’ stage concept. The unique structure lent itself to another innovative feature of the tour, the GigaPixel Fancam , an interactive panoramic photograph of each of their recent North American concerts in high resolution.

An entire audience of 60,000 people or so in the stadium are visible, no matter where they were sitting or standing. The detail is stunning. From the stage you can zoom right up to a guy sitting in the stands holding a beverage and read his t-shirt, find the woman in the corporate box giving out to her family or decipher a girl’s tattoo in the front row. Part of the fun of the application is scanning for those people who were caught unawares: the guy picking his nose, the couple having an argument, the grizzled old guy spilling his beer over his fellow concert patron or the terrified man that is giving off a “dramatic chipmunk” vibe. The Fancam is scarily impressive in its detail. What next? Bono looks inside your soul with infra-red cameras?
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