Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a device that lets a standard digital camera take pictures with a resolution of 1-gigapixel (1,000-megapixels).

The Gigapan is a robotic arm that takes multiple pictures of the same scene and blends them into a single image. The resulting picture can be expanded to show incredible detail.

"Our goal is to bring the world closer together by making it possible for anybody to take these panoramas and show them to people across the world," Randy Sargent, chief architect of the project at Carnegie Mellon, told The Times.

The robot takes a single picture and then takes 36 horizontal and 10 vertical overlapping shots.

Software then merges the images to produce the final image, such as one of the South Bank in London.

No date for the release off the device has yet been given but it is expected to retail for several hundred dollars.