- In the springtime, a young photographer's fancy turns
to -- QuickTime VR panoramas.
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- The newly launched World Wide Panorama project features
180 VR, or virtual reality, panoramas from 40 different countries, all
taken on March 20, the vernal equinox.
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- The project is one of the most ambitious to use Apple's
QuickTime VR, a technology for immersive imaging that was introduced nine
years ago but has never really taken off.
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- A VR panorama is a cylindrical, 360-degree image, which,
when done well, can give viewers the illusion of standing squarely in the
middle of a scene.
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- VR panoramas are created by standing still and taking
a series of pictures while rotating in a circle. The images are stitched
together on a computer; sometimes they are formed into a complete sphere
that shows the scene overhead and underfoot, as well as all around.
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- The most popular VR technology is Apple's QuickTime VR,
which is available for Mac and Windows. Competing products are available
from Ipix and iseemedia.
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- But while VR photography has become a fixture in real-estate
listings, and most digital cameras include software for creating VR panoramas,
the format has not become as popular as advocates would hope.
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- "Immersive imagery is virtual travel, real geography,
genuine art and great entertainment," says the World Wide Panorama
site. "It is a glimpse into other people's lives, a look around in
places we have never been and may never go. It can be unique personal views
of the world or dispassionate photojournalism. It deserves to be seen by
more people."
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- The World Wide Panorama project was designed to do just
that, explained Landis Bennett, one of the organizers.
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- "It's amazing technology," Bennett said. "It's
much more than just a photograph. But it isn't as popular as it should
be. That's why we did this project."
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- Bennett, a cartographer and VR photographer based in
Petaluma, California, teamed up with Don Bain, director of the Geography
Computing Facility at the University of California at Berkeley.
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- The pair put out a call for submissions to the worldwide
community of VR enthusiasts, which Bennett estimates to number about 1,500
hobbyists and professionals.
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- The pair received 182 submissions from amateurs and professionals
alike, including VR luminaries like photographer Hans Nyberg, who maintains
the popular Panoramas site.
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- The panoramas range from sunrise on Reunion Island to
the mythic entrance to Hades in Slovenia. A good, thorough tour through
the images is provided by the project's press release.
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- Many of the panoramas are available as large, detailed,
full-screen images. Some include sound.
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- "This is by far and away the biggest coordinated
event among independent VR producers," Bennett said. "We were
extremely pleased with the turnout ... and the quality of the work is really
outstanding."
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- Michael Quan, president of the International QuickTime
VR Association, said he was very impressed by the submissions.
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- "I always marvel at what people can come up with,"
he said. "It wasn't the best of days weather-wise (it rained in much
of Europe), but the creativity of photographers all over the world knows
no limits."
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- Quan said he and many of his association's members were
puzzled by the relative unpopularity of VR panoramas. He attributed the
slow uptake to the lack of broadband; the best images are 2 MB and up,
which is painful to download on a slow connection.
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- Quan said he hopes new technology, particularly big wide-screen
HDTVs, will usher in a new era of virtual-reality photography.
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- "We think with all the big plasma TVs, we'll see
a lot more," he said. "It's a great format for looking at VRs
of the Grand Canyon."
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- The World Wide Panorama
- http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/wwp304/
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