A gigapixel image measuring 44 inches high by 28 feet long will be on display at the 6Sight Tech Fair during the 6Sight® Future of Imaging Conference held at the Monterey Conference Center in Monterey, Calif. on November 18-20. The image, created by 20 teams of 50 photographers using 15 Canon G9 cameras shooting during one weekend in Yosemite Valley, is already helping park geologist Greg Stock
examine the effect of recent rock slides and save lives. 
"We're trying to use some of the techniques that have only been used in the entertainment industry and apply them in scientific visualization," said Eric Hanson of xRez Studio, who had previously provided special effects for "Spider-Man," "The Chronicles of Narnia," and a host of other Hollywood blockbusters. "There is a laser in the belly of a plane, and it flies back and forth over the landscape. What you get is a
digital topographic map of the surface that has the precision of a few centimeters. On top of that map, we drape the gigapixel photographic images over digital topographic maps, allowing us to virtually fly
through a near-perfect model of the Yosemite Valley. After a recent rock slide, Stock took pictures of the slide area and compared these to the shots we had made earlier and was able to understand more about the conditions that result in the slides."
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