As far as camera designs go the Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera designed by Jonas Pfeil is one of the most innovative and fun I've seen. Created for his MSc thesis, 32 mobile phone cameras have been integrated into a ball which when launched takes a spherical panorama of it's environment.

[pullquote author="Jonas Pfeil"]"The camera is thrown into the air and captures an image at the highest point of flight - when it is hardly moving. The camera takes full spherical panoramas, requires no preparation and images are taken instantaneously...Above all we found that it is a very enjoyable, playful way to take pictures."[/pullquote]

It isn't available to buy - yet - but here it is in action: