If NASA could link thousands of photographs to study Mars in greater detail, why not make the same technology available for people to see the Earth?

Illah Nourbakhsh and Randy Sargent pondered that question while working for the space agency three years ago, and the GigaPan project was born.

"We knew we could apply it to the Earth and to global understanding of the Earth," said Mr. Nourbakhsh, now an associate professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon University.

Two years after teaming up with colleagues at NASA's Ames Research Center, CMU scientists yesterday introduced a device that produced images in such stunning detail people will be able to a appreciate photos in a way that was never possible before.

The GigaPan device works with a digital camera to take thousands of photographs, ending up with a huge panorama that's billions of pixels in size. It lets viewers zoom into a crowded scene so closely they can clearly see minute details like the words on someone's T-shirt or the designs on a belt bucket.

"It's really new media in-depth," Mr. Nourbakhsh said. "It tells a story. It's not just photographs anymore. It's a way to capture a story about a place, the people, their culture all in a public community-driven way."

The devices soon will go on sale for around $200. CMU also has launched a Web site where the public can download free software and store and share their GigaPan photos with the rest of the world. A GigaPan layer on Google Earth will allow people to explore the world through photos other users post from around the globe.

"I hope with GigaPan people will be able to visit countries, see nature and explore the world and places they'll never be able to in person," said Mr. Sargent, a senior systems scientist at CMU's west coast campus in Silicon Valley.

Chris Bartley, a senior research programmer at CMU who helped develop www.gigapan.org, said the photos involve "hundreds or thousands of images that are all seamlessly stitched together in one larger image."

"These photos are huge, which is why you can zoom in so close," Mr. Bartley said.

It takes about 15 minutes for the robotic device to do its work. After taking the photographs, users will need the free software to stitch all the photos together to be downloaded onto the Web site.

Scientists demonstrated the power of the camera by zooming into photos close enough to point out details that usually would be unrecognizable in a photograph, such as elaborate architecture and facial expressions in a crowd. Users can search for names on a GigaPan photo of the Vietnam Memorial just as easily as they could if they were in Washington, D.C.

"This could have a significant impact on people who don't have the means to travel to these places," Mr. Nourbakhsh said. "The goal of this project is to bring the world a little closer through pictures."