QTVR and panoramic photography, research. (New Assignment)

Quicktime virtual reality and panoramic photography.
"QuickTime VR enables viewers to explore virtual worlds using nothing more than a computer and mouse — no cumbersome goggles, headsets or gloves required."
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/technologies/qtvr/
Panoramic methods:

There are several different methods that can be employed when taking panoramic pictures. I have listed these, below.
  • Short rotation
  • Full rotation
  • Fixed lens
  • Segmented
  • Catadioptric cameras

Rich Niewiroski Jr.

This panorama displays the photographers courtyard complex after it
had been raining. The images were taken using a Nikon Coolpix 5000,
Kaidan panoramic head, and a Manfrotto tripod. The image stitching
process was completed with Apple's Quicktime VR authoring software.

The above image is a panorama formed of several images, which have been captured from a single point in space. It is good practice to take these images using a tripod to ease the digital 'stitching' process, which consists of joining the stills, seamlessly. This image can then be used to create a cylindrical QTVR.

The QTVR's file format has two different representations:
  • Cylindrical - 360o image wrapped around the viewer.
  • Cubic - A cube of six 90o x 90o images surrounding the viewer.
Embedded QTVR examples (Use your mouse!):



"In the Blue Mountains to the west of the city the townships keep to the central plateau and north and south there are enormous thickly forested valleys with sheer cliffs … panorama. Being a landscape of ancient tropical seabeds there are coal seams here and small scale mining went on until the 1930s. Mining is blamed for the landslide you see here — where a large hunk of cliff tumbled into the valley in the middle of the night in early 1932."
I picked the above mountainous scene QTVR as it is a fine example of how this technology displays images with vast perspective differences.



"World’s biggest running event” the official website says — about this mass run this morning from the city to Bondi Beach. You can see about a quarter perhaps of the 75,000 runners — waiting to start — in this panorama. The race starts quite early in the day and it is often chilly — whence the tops you can see discarded on the hedges in the panorama."
The example above is fascinating, as it captures a perfect still of thousands of people who are obviously moving. This is typically done with a specialist fish-eye lens.

The above examples have been sourced from: http://www.mediavr.com/blog/

It is important to note that both of the above examples are of cubic QTVR's. These are usually made up of 6 images, each taken at 90 degrees from one another. Specialist fish-eye lenses can also be incorporated in conjunction with software to produce a cubic QTVR from just one photograph.

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