Abstract
This paper introduces a framework for the creation, management and deployment of interactive virtual tours. A panoramic image acquisition unit is adapted to acquire panoramic images and video streams from a wide variety of sources. The acquired panoramic images and video streams are fed into a transform engine that performs any required transformations on the input data in a uniform and seamless manner. A package generator coupled with the transform engine synthesizes complete virtual tour packages by combining the transformed data with a broad range of multimedia resources to create navigable virtual tours. Perspective correction and related transformations on the data are carried out by a viewing engine allowing a plurality of viewers to independently and simultaneously interact with the virtual tours. User interaction with the virtual tour packages is enhanced by a control engine that facilitates bi-directional communication between various elements of the system.
Highlights
The recent proliferation of affordable and powerful personal computing devices in the form of the ubiquitous personal computer and associated hardware and software, personal imaging devices in the form of digital still image and video cameras and associated tools and techniques, and accessible personal communications in the form of the Internet and related platforms has generated strong and growing interest in the creation and use of virtual tours.A virtual tour is typically an environment containing representations of remote locations and permitting one or more users to interact with the environment in a manner that gives the user the perception of being right there within the remote location
The intimate goal of the transform engine is the creation of a suitable representation of the spherical environment map from the panoramic image acquisition unit and the removal of any distortions that may be present in the data
The transform engine could, when required, transform the spherical environment maps into rectilinear panorama format by using a spherical to rectilinear coordinate transformation
Summary
Abstract—This paper introduces a framework for the creation, management and deployment of interactive virtual tours. A panoramic image acquisition unit is adapted to acquire panoramic images and video streams from a wide variety of sources. The acquired panoramic images and video streams are fed into a transform engine that performs any required transformations on the input data in a uniform and seamless manner. A package generator coupled with the transform engine synthesizes complete virtual tour packages by combining the transformed data with a broad range of multimedia resources to create navigable virtual tours. Perspective correction and related transformations on the data are carried out by a viewing engine allowing a plurality of viewers to independently and simultaneously interact with the virtual tours. User interaction with the virtual tour packages is enhanced by a control engine that facilitates bi-directional communication between various elements of the system
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