Heise online reports that bancrupt company IPIX will sell their patent holding the creation of 360° panoramas. Part of the patent protects undistorting images made with fish-eye lenses. As one commenter remarks this could be an opportunity for the open s
AirPano is a project created by a team of Russian photographers focused on taking high-resolution aerial 360° photographs and 360° video. Today AirPano is the largest resource in the world -- by geographical coverage, number of aerial photographs, and artistic and technical quality of the images — featuring 360° panoramas and 360° videos of the highest quality shot from a bird's eye view.
End of july IPIX announced bancruptcy. The company still holds patents regarding 360 ° panorama creation including undistorting images made with fish-eye lenses. Wouldn't it be a good idea to start an open source initiative to buy out and free the patent
M. Trapp, and J. Döllner. GRAPP 2008 - International Conference on Computer Graphics Theory and Applications, 3, page 162--170. INSTICC Press, (January 2008)