Evgenia Morozova
The use of virtual tours - as one of the types of ITC technologies

Good afternoon, dear colleagues!

In order to diversify my classes, make them rich, interesting and productive, I use in their work reception - virtual tour. This technique allows you to more widely acquaint children with various objects of our city, country. With the development of computer technology, it became possible to carry out virtual tours in preschool institutions without leaving the building. Often, weather conditions, a significant distance to the object and the safety of children during transportation do not allow to implement the planned plan and carry out a real excursion on the topic under study.

Virtual tour- this is one of the methods of project activity and is an effective form of teaching preschoolers. It is a way of getting to know the objects of the surrounding world without actually visiting the place itself; familiarization of the teacher with the methods of searching, systematizing and visual presentation of information using a computer; and allows repeat material over and over which improves the quality of the educational process.

In form and content virtual tours there may be several species:

Photo trip. Usually arranged as a linear presentation, that is, a sequential transition from one slide to another. These programs include PowerPoint and OpenOffice Impress. What does a postman need? (carpenter, doctor, cook)», "Big City Road".

video tour. Traditionally created in video and photo editing programs such as Movie Maket, Windows Live Movie Maker. These can be professional videos, family project videos, or videos. ( "Kindergarten Professions", "Where Chocolate Grows", "Where is paper made?", "Our Army", "Furniture factory"

Prezi presentation for creating multimedia, interactive presentations.

In preparation virtual tour I use the following steps:

I choose a topic, according to the OOP and the age characteristics of children;

I define goals and objectives excursions;

Finding sources excursion material;

I am engaged in the selection and study excursion objects;

I make a route excursions based on various photo and video materials;

I am compiling a summary excursions;

showing excursion;

Discussion with children at the end excursions

Video tour is the most common form virtual tour which can be taken on the Internet and use for work, but some are not age appropriate and require significant video cuts. In this case I use photo trip or presi-presentation. Linear presentation simplicity, speed in creation excursions, but it has no effect "presence". Therefore, I actively use the Prezi presentation in my work. This approach is innovative. It is created on a special web service Prezi.com and, unlike linear presentations, the main effects in it are not related to the transition from slide to slide, but to the scaling of individual parts of the same slide. This technique helps children to independently determine the main properties and features of the material under consideration, to establish the sequence of presentation of the identified features.

In her practice, she created several presentations with the possibility of enlarging a specific fragment. ( "The Journey of a Letter", "Visiting Grandma Fedora", "A space flight".

I invite you to familiarize yourself with the presentation "The Journey of a Letter".

This excursion Designed for middle school age.

Getting to know the mail

1 - children write a letter for their grandmother. The letter is then placed in a stamped envelope.

2 - mailbox at the post office. You need to put the letter in the mailbox at the post office. The mailbox already contains many letters.

3 - mail bag with letters. - From the boxes, mail is collected in special mail bags.

4 - workshop for sorting letters. At the post office, letters are sorted by destination and stamped with the date of dispatch.

5 - plane and train. What do you think how mail is sent to other cities and countries? - That's right, mail to distant countries is sent first by car, then by plane, and to closer distances by car and by train.

6 - plane and luggage. At destinations, at the airport or train station, this mail is delivered by special Cars to post offices. At the post office, postmen sort letters directly to addresses, put a stamp with the date of delivery.

7 - generalization

8 - postmen. Postmen disperse to addresses and deliver mail to recipients

9 - grandmother reads the received letter.

This is how the letter travels.

Since the Federal State Educational Standard for Preschool Education requires new ideas and approaches from teachers, in the future I plan to study the prezi program in more detail. take full advantage of it.

Related publications:

Report on self-education "The use of non-traditional activities for the development of fine motor skills in children of primary preschool age."

As part of the regular meeting of the methodological workshop for the musical leaders of the city of Kursk, held on the basis of MBDOU No. 130, was.

The use of gaming technologies as a means of increasing motivation for classes in the Circus Studio Slide No. 1 Using gaming technologies as a means of increasing motivation for classes in the Circus Studio Slide 2 “What is a child like in a game.

Using the print as one of the non-traditional ways of drawing in work with preschool children 1 slide: Good afternoon, dear colleagues! The topic of my presentation is “Using print as one of the non-traditional ways of drawing at work.

Theater is an art that engages and sharpens several senses at once. The impact of the theater on the child is undeniable, especially on children.

The use of relaxation techniques as one of the forms of health-saving technologies in preschool educational institutions Relaxation is one of the ways to overcome internal tension, based on a more or less conscious relaxation of the muscles. Even preschoolers.

Pedagogical experience "Using different types of activities for the formation of cultural and hygienic skills in children" Pedagogical experience

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DIY virtual tour

Svetlana Shlyakhtina

On the Web, especially on travel and real estate sites, you can increasingly find virtual tours that create a complete illusion of presence and allow you to make exciting virtual tours. In the case of purchasing real estate, for example, during such a tour, you can fully inspect the apartment or house both outside and inside, looking inside and walking through the rooms.

Before a tourist trip, it is worth taking the proposed cruise virtually, evaluating the hotel room and restaurant service in the virtual tour, as well as walking through the places of the proposed excursions, etc. Therefore, it is not surprising that virtual tours are offered more and more often, and they are gaining more and more popularity among visitors.

What is meant by virtual tour?

A virtual tour is a kind of combination of panoramic photographs (spherical or cylindrical), while the transition from one panorama to another is carried out through active zones (they are called anchor points) placed directly on the images, and also taking into account the tour plan. All this is complemented by foreground background music, as well as, if necessary, ordinary photos, videos, Flash-movies, tour plan, etc.

As noted, virtual tours are based on photo panoramas, which differ from ordinary photographs in interactive viewing. In practice, this means that when viewing a panoramic photo, the user sees only that part of the image that interests him at that particular moment, and, if desired, he can look around, look up and down, and zoom in or out of individual details of the image. Looking at an ordinary photograph, the viewer sees only what is shown to him, and cannot control the viewing process in any way. Even more interesting is the virtual tour, when the user, at will, can move between panoramas, either through the active zones, or guided by the tour map.

In other words, panoramas and virtual tours make it possible to acquaint the viewer practically “live” with the surroundings: the layout of a house or apartment, the interior of a car, various interior design options, the interior of a hotel or restaurant, the main premises of a fitness club, etc.

Creation of photo panoramas for a virtual tour

Photo panoramas are created from several specially prepared overlapping photographs by special programs that "stitch" the images into one single panorama, removing invariably occurring distortions. There are quite a lot of such stitching programs today: RealVIZ Stitcher, Photovista Panorama, The Panorama Factory, SP_STITCHER, etc. Each program uses its own image stitching technology, and the stitching itself can be done in automatic, manual or automatic-manual modes. You can view photo panoramas in browsers specially designed for this purpose, and you need to choose the latter based on the format of the panoramic file.

To create photo panoramas, we will focus on the SP_STITCHER stapler from Spherical Panorama Inc. The reason for this choice is very simple - this is the only Russian-language program of this profile, and besides, it is free - only the use of ready-made panoramic images is paid, and the cost of the license is much lower than that of other analogue programs. But most importantly, this program creates panoramas in the SPF format we need, which is a prerequisite for creating virtual tours later in the SP_VTB application environment.

They say, Now a virtual tour should be on the website of each school. However, the events that will be discussed took place back in 2014. At that time, educational institutions did not yet have such a task, and I took the very first steps in creating spherical panoramas and virtual tours. After training in my apartment, dacha and even the neighboring forest, I decided that I was ready to fulfill the first serious order. Now, after years, having more than a dozen good custom projects behind him, it’s even ridiculous to remember what mistakes were made at the beginning of a career. I decided to write this text to tell you how you can make a virtual tour. And not only in school. For anything. Suddenly you yourself want to create something similar, at least you will know where to start.

What are virtual tours

They can be immediately divided into several characteristic groups.

1. Text + pictures

This is probably the easiest option. You simply create a separate page on the site (virtual tours are usually placed on the sites of institutions), and start writing the text for the intended visitor. You can add photos there. Thus, in just a couple of hours you can solve the problem of the site's compliance with "modern requirements".

You understand, it will be just work "for show". It is possible that a site visitor will scroll through a long "narrow" text, but most likely will not read it thoroughly. The commission checking the site is also unlikely to be delighted with such excursions. Of course, they will put the notorious tick on the site, but they will do it with such a sour face that you immediately want to redo everything so that next time you don’t look so faded.

2. Presentation

Sometimes it is similar to the first option. Having opened a virtual tour, you will immediately see a series of slides. Each will have the same "narrow" text and photographs, alas, not always successfully taken. Despite the fact that this is a more "innovative", "multimedia" approach, the reaction of the commission is usually approximately the same as in the case of the text version. Again get a "tick" for a "tick".

True, some creators of such virtual tours sometimes provide each slide of the presentation with a voice-over. Imagine, the first slide opens, the start screen appears, beautiful background music starts playing, and a pleasant voice begins to talk about your institution. Flipping through the slides, the visitor hears the continuation of the story, sees new pictures, etc.

A well-made presentation on the site can keep your visitors busy for a long time. However, to create a beautiful interesting product, it takes a lot of time, good photos, high-quality text for voice acting and a voice that does not stutter, does not burr, but speaks properly. Alas, as practice shows, such products are usually made hastily, on the last day before the test. Is it any wonder that they also deserve only a condescending nod from the inspectors.

3. Video film

If in the past we have dealt with static pictures, a video about an organization can be made much more "alive". If you properly write a script, write an interesting, "catchy" text, make the speakers spit semolina out of their mouths and speak more freely, artistically, then a video film may well pass for a good option for implementing a virtual tour.

The trouble usually lies in the fact that ordinary people, non-specialists, can rarely write a script or say something to the camera, not to mention artistry and impromptu in the frame. And in general, speaking in front of the camera is not as simple as it might seem at first glance. It is not surprising that the person who just had a casual conversation with you stands in front of the lens, as if "swallowed a stake" and speaks in a monotone, looking into the camera with fixed, unblinking copper eyes.

Not to mention that a good camera and microphone for sound recording, lighting and editing equipment are extremely rare in ordinary schools.

4. Virtual tour

This technology, more than anything else, has the right to be called full virtual tour. Unlike the previous described approaches, it really allows you to "look around". After all, this is precisely the opportunity a visitor has when he, along with the rest of the sightseers, dejectedly wanders through the halls of some museum, the workshops of an advanced enterprise or other tourist sites, listening to the guide’s memorized chatter.

Unlike the previous options, where the visitor's field of vision is artificially limited by the frames of a photo or video frame, in a virtual tour you can really "look to the right", "look to the left". In principle, nothing prevents you from looking back, looking up and even at your feet. True, the visitor, of course, will not see his feet, but he will have the opportunity to examine the parquet or carpet on the floor.

In a word, the user, as it were, is inside a sphere, which he can rotate in front of his eyes on the computer screen with the help of a mouse. In the same way as on a regular tour, in a virtual one you can "get closer" to the object of interest of the exposition, or, on the contrary, "step back" to see it in its entirety. This is done with the mouse wheel.

Now imagine that you are wearing virtual reality goggles... You don't have to write anything further. Surely you yourself have already presented all the advantages of this technology. Just turn your head, raise it up or lower it down! The illusion of a real presence inside the room will be simply amazing. And this is not some fantastic technology from films about the future. Already now you can buy such glasses, insert your smartphone into them and immerse yourself in the wonderful world of virtual travel.

How to create a virtual tour

There are two options here. You can try to make it yourself or order a product from a specialized studio company. There is no doubt that in the second case everything will be done at the highest level. However, the cost of such orders usually turns out ... to put it mildly, very outstanding.

A simple example. One of the studios in Nizhny Novgorod asks for 2,000 rubles for shooting each spherical panorama. That is, if you have at least 10 rooms on the tour, then consider that you no longer have a "twenty".

In addition to shooting panoramas, you also need to assemble them into a common product, equip them with the means of transition from panorama to panorama. It's a good idea to add a map for quick teleportation to the desired exposure location. The emblem of your organization, the start screen saver, will not interfere. And if you also record a voice-over, it would be generally great.

Just imagine: you move into a new room, start looking around, and meanwhile a pleasant voice tells you what kind of place it is, what is its peculiarity, etc.

Let's clarify:

Shooting 10 panoramas - 20,000 rubles.
Tour assembly - 19,000 rubles. (based on 1900 rubles per panorama)
All sorts of cards, logos and other things - about 3000 rubles.

Total: 42,000. And this is a very simple tour without voice acting and other pleasant "gadgets"!

If you want to make sound inserts or, God forbid, embed live video into panoramas, then the cost of the order may well be expressed as a six-figure number.

Isn't it too expensive for a dubious pleasure to have a virtual tour on the site? Moreover, mainly in order to earn a positive assessment of the checking gentlemen from the ministry?

What if you try to do it on your own?

What you need to create a virtual tour yourself

1. Camera with manual settings

The basis of any such product are static spherical panoramas. To shoot them, you need a camera with manual settings. Any SLR will do, and even a compact camera that allows you to fix the shutter speed, aperture, white balance and sensor sensitivity for all frames when shooting a panorama.

As for me, for simple projects I sometimes use the Sony RX100 camera. It is lightweight, gives fairly high-quality images and just allows you to make all the necessary settings. For more complex and expensive projects, a more serious DSLR with a good lens is used.

So, if you have a similar camera, consider that part of the problem has already been solved.

2. Tripod

It should be both strong enough and, if possible, light. The fortress is needed so that the tripod does not tilt from side to side when the camera “spins” around the shifted axis of rotation while shooting individual frames of the panorama. If the tripod tilts to the side each time under the weight of the camera, nothing will come of our venture.

A light and compact tripod is much more convenient to carry with you to the shooting than a huge heavy tripod. For example, my tripod, if folded completely, fits into a briefcase diplomat. You can put all the other equipment there too. Thus, on the way to the shooting, I am no different from an ordinary employee who carries business papers from home to work. I think a photo backpack and a big tripod would attract a lot more unwanted attention on the streets.

2. Panoramic tripod head

The very first shots for spherical panoramas I did just by hand. What does it mean? I stood in the center of the room, aimed the lens straight up and shot a point, which in professional language is called zenith. Then it was necessary to shoot a series of photographs, holding the camera at an angle of 45 degrees to the horizon. Gradually turning around, I took about 12-15 photos. Shooting must be carried out with an "overlap" of frames by about 20%, otherwise the panorama will not stick together.

Then it was necessary to shoot the same series at an angle of 90 and 135 degrees. The final chord was the shooting of the point, which is under your feet. It is called nadir.

The result should have been about 38 photographs, each of which captured a separate fragment of the general sphere. Here's what it could look like:

Alas, at first I underestimated the importance of the panoramic head and simply shot "handheld". This led to terrible inconsistencies in the already glued panorama. Moreover, the problem was aggravated the stronger, the smaller the size of the room had to be photographed.

If minor problems could be dealt with using Adobe Photoshop, then it was simply pointless to deal with multiple inconsistencies.

Having lost a lot of time trying to glue the unglued, I had to spend money on purchasing a panoramic head.

Here's what it might look like (variations are possible, but the idea remains the same):

The panoramic head is mounted on a tripod, and the camera is already attached to it. The bottom line is that when shooting parts of a panorama in fragments, you can (and should) make the camera rotate around a certain point in space. This point is called nodal. As a rule, it is located inside the lens. Its position is determined by the tables and for different lenses purely individually.

If we just take pictures by holding the camera in our hands and gradually turning around, we will never be able to achieve the same accuracy in the position of the camera in space. And this means that inconsistencies will be inevitable. Thus, a panoramic head is something that should definitely be purchased for shooting material for a virtual tour.

Without it, either nothing will come of it, or it will take a very, very, very long time to edit each glued panorama.

The exceptions in this case are spherical panoramas, which we photograph in large halls, or on the street if there are no objects nearby. But even with such shootings, problems are more than possible.

So, now we know that in order to shoot the source material of the virtual tour, we need three things:

If something is already there, then the task is much easier. If at least one component from this trio is missing, it must be bought in addition. For reference, the cost of a panoramic head is approximately 5-10 thousand rubles. True, there are more expensive heads with a built-in computer and electric motors. In fact, this is a robot that does all the shooting itself, turning the camera to the desired positions. It will be enough for you to simply press the "start" button and leave the room. The rest will be done automatically. This, of course, would be great, but for starters, a simple manual option will be quite enough for us.

A special panoramic camera can serve as an alternative, but its price of several thousand euros usually scares buyers for some reason :)

Programs for creating a virtual tour

Now let's move on to the software part. Unfortunately, for gluing a spherical panorama and creating the final product - a virtual tour - one cannot do with some available improvised means. Without questioning your computer skills in any way, I dare say that no one can manually glue 38 photos into one correct spherical panorama. Even you!

On the market there are different programs for stitching panoramas. I've been using the tool since the beginning Kolor Autopano Giga. At first I trained for the trial version, then, having got used to it, I decided to buy a licensed one. Moreover, if you buy it together with other necessary tools Kolor Panotour Pro, then the total check will be a little "lighter" than two separate checks for each product. Such a bundle will cost 39,830 rubles (at the current euro exchange rate).

The amount is considerable. Agree. In principle, you can get by with a more modest set:

Its price is much more attractive: only 13,230 rubles. (at the current exchange rate). Alas, pleasure always comes at the price of refusing more refined pleasures. The light "red" version has a lot of restrictions. Just one example: your virtual tour cannot be viewed on a mobile device: smartphone or tablet. But now it is almost half of all Internet traffic!

Not surprisingly, all the customers I deal with especially emphasize the need for a mobile version of the product.

There is a certain fork of interests. On the one hand, you do not want to pay big money for an expensive set of programs, on the other hand, you want to have all the features (the mobile version is just one example) that it has.

By and large, buying a panoramic head is easy and inexpensive. A person has the opportunity to independently shoot 3D panoramas. But using licensed software for merging and authoring a tour becomes a bit of a problem.

Usually such people either save money for a long time or find the owners of licensed copies of programs. For a fee, they are asked to do the rest of the work. It is much cheaper than to immediately take and buy the program.

Since I just have everything you need, I can offer you the following service:

You send me individual photos taken from the panoramic head. For example, these are:

and I return to you the finished glued panorama. For example, like this:

I understand your confusion. It really looks a little like a spherical panorama. Nevertheless, it is these pictures that become the source for assembling a virtual tour.

If you are interested in cooperation, write to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You must have JavaScript enabled to view.

Meanwhile, I continue the description of the process.

After gluing all the captured panoramas, you need to "assemble" the finished product from them - virtual tour. This is done in the second program we saw above. It is called Panotour Pro. Of course, you can use analogues, but I work with this program.

In Panotour Pro, we set the points from which each panorama is viewed. Next, we define connections between panoramas so that after viewing one room, you can go to another, third, etc. This is where sound is added. It can be common for the entire excursion, for example: background music, or a separate sound file for each panorama.

Next, we place relevant static images in the panoramas. For example, we need to show a large museum exhibit, or present a portrait of a person working in this room, with a description of his merits...

If a TV screen or a computer monitor enters the camera's field of view during shooting, you can "overlay" a real video on it. It will play while viewing the panorama and will greatly enliven a static picture. Look

To give more volume to the panorama, you can introduce some objects, providing them with a parallax effect. For example, you can add images of butterflies that supposedly flew indoors when shooting. In addition, each butterfly will not be rigidly tied to its place. As the panorama rotates, it will move a little faster, which will create the illusion that it "hangs" in space much closer to the observer than the background picture itself. See example...

The result of our work will be the final product - a virtual tour. After clicking on the "create" button, the program will save a set of files to the computer disk. It will need to be placed on the site, make a corresponding link, giving all visitors the opportunity to "walk" around our organization, look around the room, read descriptions, listen to stories, watch videos.

How I did my first virtual school tour

Shooting material for a virtual tour

The very first real project I did for free. You know, it was somehow scary to immediately set the price for your services. What if something goes wrong or, God forbid, nothing happens at all. Although at home everything stuck together normally, it was still somehow uncomfortable. As they say, training is training, but in practice, something is bound to happen.

Therefore, having secured the director's promise that I would not be killed in case of failure, on the appointed day I arrived at the shooting. I must say that the leadership of the school approached the event very responsibly.

First, a day was chosen when no one was at school. It was Sunday.

Secondly, perfect order was put in all rooms, all tables in the classrooms were leveled, all floors and blackboards were washed. In the dining room, tables were laid as if for a banquet, and in the gym, equipment was laid out all over the floor. Moreover, it is not just randomly scattered, but it is laid out in strict accordance with the laws of symmetry and harmony.

Thirdly, we had a clear shooting plan, the keys to all the premises, all the burnt out light bulbs were replaced in the premises themselves, all the blinds were straightened ...

In a word, it was even a little scary to sit in a galosh when the customer was so well prepared.

Shooting has begun. We moved from class to class. In each room, I found the optimal shooting point. At my request, extra tables were taken out of the classrooms, minor flaws in the interior were eliminated. After all, the "cleaner" the panorama is when shooting, the less it has to be retouched later. I remember once I had to clean worn-out places on linoleum from the floor in almost all panoramas. In another case, it was necessary to "cover over" the red smudges on the ceiling ...

Luckily it was cloudy that day. Just when bright sunlight hits the window, a gross imbalance of lighting is created. As a result, some fragments of the panorama are very light, almost overexposed, while others, on the contrary, are very dark. So it is better to reschedule the shooting if the sun is shining outside.

15 panoramas were shot in about 4 hours. Shooting itself, in principle, is quite fast - about 5 minutes per panorama. The rest of the time was spent on transitions from place to place, bringing the premises to the best view.

I took home a flash drive with the footage. On the way, I thought all the time how unhealthy it would be if something happened to her and she refused to read. After all, then you have to start shooting from the beginning. Fortunately, everything went well.

Gluing spherical panoramas

As I mentioned, there are special programs for this. Launching Kolor's Autopano Giga, I uploaded a photo from the first shooting point - it was a staircase between floors - and pressed the "create" button. The program thought a little and produced a finished panorama:

The glued panorama appeared in the right window. Her appearance, frankly, is somewhat unexpected. But, oddly enough, it is precisely such images that should be obtained when gluing. In the left window, you guessed it, there were sources. There are 38 photos in total.

It must be said that such an almost ideal result is not always immediately obtained. It all depends on the quality of shooting, lighting, interior design features of the room, etc. For example, if in the process you touch the tripod with your foot and move it from its place, then it is better to immediately start shooting the panorama again. But it's good if you notice that you've moved your tripod. And if not?

Then the camera will move in space and instead of an almost perfectly glued panorama, it may turn out to be incomprehensible. Therefore, during the shooting, you can not chat, be distracted. You need to fully focus on the process so that you don’t have to go to reshoot the panorama again.

The horizon line is leveled, very dark fragments are "stretched", such specific operations are performed that are simply not worth listing now. Sometimes it happens that the program was not able to automatically glue the images correctly. This happens especially often when we are dealing with cyclically repeating decor elements. For example, tiles on the floor, false ceiling tiles, patterns on the walls, etc.

In such rooms, it is very important to choose a shooting point in order to eliminate symmetry in the interior design. In addition, you need to beware of mirrors. When shooting spherical panoramas, they are our enemies.

After bringing the panorama to its normal form, it is exported to the final graphic file in JPG format:

If everything is in order with the panorama, then the process of processing it takes about 15 minutes. It seems that this is too long, however, in addition to our own actions, we must take into account the time while the program glues the panorama from separate files, and then turns the edited project into an image file.

Thus, ideally, 15 panoramas could be stitched together in 225 minutes, or almost 4 hours. In practice, it almost always works out better. Some panoramas require more serious improvements. Others then have to be retouched in Adobe Photoshop.

Once again, here a lot depends on the quality of the shooting.

Assembling a virtual tour

Sooner or later, the moment comes when all the panoramas are glued together, prepared, and you can proceed to the final phase of work.

Here comes the program Panotour Pro the same company Kolor. Again, I cannot but say that there are other programs. But I somehow from the very beginning I use this one and I like it.

First, we load all the stitched panoramas into the workspace (on the left):

It is convenient that panoramas can be grouped. For example, on the floors of the room.

Each panorama must be given a name, indicate its initial direction, connect hot spots with other panoramas and a map. If necessary, you need to add a sound file and static images. Next, you need to configure the options for the entire project as a whole: what background music will be, whether auto-rotation of panoramas will be applied, how the navigation buttons will look, whether there will be a photo gallery in the tour, whether the "little planet" effect will be applied, etc. For all its seeming simplicity, this process will take another hour and a half.

Then, after the final calculation of the tour, it turns out that somewhere they forgot to put a hot spot to go to another panorama, somewhere they made a mistake when writing the name, somewhere they forgot to put a "glare" on a light bulb, somewhere the panorama rotates "not to the other side" and so on.

In other words, creating a virtual tour from previously taken photographs usually takes a whole working day. No smoke breaks, teas or coffee breaks. The computer gets it too. He constantly calculates something, working with huge amounts of data.

But sooner or later the moment comes when the virtual tour can be shown to the customer.

In the project I am describing, it came on March 5, 2014. To show the product to the customer, I uploaded it to the hosting where my site is located. The link was sent to the client. With it, you can simply take a virtual tour but you can't download it. It's great. After all, enterprising citizens have not yet died out, who strive to get the finished product at their full disposal, and then begin to feed breakfasts about payment.

With a virtual tour, everything is very simple: here is the link, look. If you have any comments, write, we will correct it. If everything is in order, here is the invoice for payment. Upon receipt, you will receive a download link. I think everything is fair.

As I already mentioned, the described project was done without any payment. Although it did not turn out to be absolutely perfect, both I and the customer got what they wanted. The school received I am an invaluable experience in the implementation of a real project.

Much time has passed since then. Dozens of projects have been completed for customers from different cities, including Moscow. A new LivePano technology has been mastered, which allows you to "fit" live video into a still panorama.

Now we can responsibly state the following. Mastering all this technology, buying expensive software and equipment because of a single virtual tour is definitely not worth it. Unless you make such products all the time for yourself or third-party customers. Much less troublesome and costly to order a service ...

But how is it? More recently, I wrote that this also translates into a lot of money. Where is the sequence?

When I wrote about exorbitant prices, I meant the services of competitors. Some studios do put up really expensive price lists and then they're surprised they don't get that many orders.

If you are faced with the need creating a virtual tour, you can use the options that I mentioned at the very beginning of this text: presentations or videos. Of course, compared to a real virtual tour, they do not look so interesting, but they eliminate the need to spend a lot of money.

But... why don't you use my services? After all, I'm not going to "rip off" you, my readers, as sticky.

Here is my specific suggestion:

* plus travel and travel expenses. I work all over Russia

** Shooting must take place in one day.

"But what about the quality?" - you ask - "Where is the catch? What's wrong here?"

And about the low price - I'll explain it now. Everything is very simple.

Expensive studios spend huge amounts of money on advertising. Naturally, in order to cover these costs, they are forced to inflate the cost of services. In addition, they contain state photographers, installers. There is certainly a director, an accountant, a cleaner - everyone has to pay salary.

A office space, which they sometimes shoot in the city center? What about overhead costs? And expensive prestigious automobile on which the director rides ...

The time that many have been waiting for almost a year has come. The session is over, the rush jobs at work are over - you can relax at least for a couple of weeks. Ahead of summer adventures and a lot of different impressions. One will bring trophies-souvenirs from distant countries, another will have time to make pleasant acquaintances in a short time, and someone will master the skills of a surfer and learn to “catch a wave”. Whatever you do in the summer, wherever you go, one thing you are almost guaranteed to take with you on the road is a digital camera.

When telling someone about where you were vacationing, you really want to somehow magically be hundreds of kilometers away again and personally show your interlocutor how beautiful it was there. Photos and videos are great, but they only capture a fraction of what's around you. By showing a picture, you force them to look from a certain angle, which may be of less interest to the interlocutor than other details that are not included in the frame.

If you want a shot of the area where you were, not to lose a single detail, it is worth getting acquainted with the technique of creating panoramas. Yes, not simple panoramas, but circular ones.

⇡ Shooting circular panoramas

In order to create panoramas, you do not need any special equipment or deep knowledge of photography. Once you discover the technique of creating panoramic shots, you will realize that until now you did not realize what capabilities a conventional digital camera has. Its potential is not limited to passport characteristics - you just need to know how to get around the "restrictions". Modern software tools for gluing individual frames into a wide-angle panorama make it possible to create masterpieces in very high resolution from ordinary shots - without visible seams and taking into account the even color balance.

The easiest way to create panoramic shots is with a special mode that is available in almost every modern digital camera. This mode works differently in each camera: in some models, the camera on the display “prompts” the edge of the previous image so that parts of the panorama can be more accurately combined, in others it completely automates the shooting process, and the user only has to slowly circle the lens around the viewing angle. Of course, it is better to take such pictures from a tripod, but if one is not at hand, it is quite possible to shoot handheld.

If you are using a smartphone camera to take pictures, keep in mind that there are applications that make the process of creating a panorama much easier. For example, in Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, the ability to capture circular panoramas is implemented by default. Well, if there is no such tool or default mode, you can use third-party software. For example, for Android devices there is a free application Photaf Panorama, which helps to correctly orient the smartphone when shooting, and also glues the received pictures into a panorama in automatic mode.

For iOS devices, the Cycloramic app is recommended. With it, you can take pictures, and glue the panorama, and create a virtual 3D tour. iPhone 5 owners can take advantage of the automatic panorama shooting mode: you need to put your smartphone on a flat surface, after which the application will turn on vibration mode and take the required number of shots, each time turning the device to the desired angle.

⇡ Assembling panoramas on a computer

Unfortunately, there are not very many free programs for gluing panoramas on a computer. One of the most effective tools is an application called . This program is cross-platform - it can be installed on Windows, Fedora, OS X, Ubuntu, Gentoo, FreeBSD.

As an alternative to Hugin, the GIMP graphics editor is also recommended. True, by itself he cannot combine parts of a multi-pixel image, but for him there is an add-on Pandora, which, although not very correct, still copes with its task. This add-on comes as a .scm file. In order for GIMP to work with it, you need to copy the file to the directory where the program's scripts are stored.

For those who want to get the most out of the process of creating panoramas, we recommend paying attention to the Kolor Autopano Giga program. Without exaggeration, we can say that this program is one of the best tools for creating panoramic shots.

A lot can be said about the merits of Autopano Giga. It has a universal set for correcting distortions in the resulting photo, and a very effective algorithm for dealing with "ghosts" (traces from moving objects), and the use of HDR technology to equalize exposure, and the ability to manually correct stitching control points.

But most importantly, in the vast majority of cases, Autopano Giga does not require intervention in the process of combining images and produces such an ideal result that the finished panorama sometimes does not even require final processing in a graphics editor. In addition, Autopano Giga parallelizes calculations very efficiently, making the application very fast in processing images on multi-core processors.

⇡ Create interactive panoramas

An interactive panorama can be created using the PanoramaStudio Pro program. It differs from similar applications by the ability to work with full 360x180 degree spherical panoramas. Also PanoramaStudio Pro can help you create panoramas consisting of several rows of images. Like any serious application for working with panoramic shots, PanoramaStudio supports automatic alignment and stitching of images, lens distortion correction, and also has a special mode in which you can manually specify key points for fitting frames.

Having rendered a panorama in the PanoramaStudio Pro window, the user can choose one of the options for saving it. The program offers to save a virtual tour not only as a graphic file, but also in various interactive formats.

PanoramaStudio Pro can make an interactive screensaver in SCR format or save a virtual tour in EXE format. For web publishing, you can choose to create an interactive panorama based on Flash. In this case, the program will create several files that are necessary to view the virtual tour in the browser. Visually, it looks like a fragment of a computer game: using the navigation buttons or the mouse, you can “look around”, look around, zoom in or out on individual parts of the panoramic image. When viewing an html file, you can also switch to full screen mode, enable automatic playback.

In virtual tours, it is not necessary to use only circular panoramas. You can also generate galleries from ordinary panoramas or even "narrow" shots. However, it should be borne in mind that the smaller the angle of view of the photograph used, the less spectacular the result is.

⇡ Creation of virtual tours

Let's say you've created a series of panoramic shots taken from roughly the same location. Based on them, several interactive views were created. Panotour Pro has another useful feature: combining all these panoramic "spaces" into an interactive tour.

Such a tour is nothing more than a set of panoramas linked by links. These links are set during the virtual tour setup process. Visually, they can look like special marks on the image, for example, in the form of a marker, geometric shape, or image thumbnail. Links can not only lead the user to another panoramic view, but also forward to the address of a network resource, download a file, and so on.

When a virtual tour contains a sufficiently large number of panoramic views, it is difficult for the user to keep all the links in memory. In order not to lose views when generating the final tour due to the lack of links to them, it is convenient to use the link map of the Panotour Pro project. This map is a link topology diagram. It shows the used panoramas, and arrows indicate links leading from one panorama to another.

To see which views a certain panorama contains links to, you need to select its thumbnail, after which the directions of the involved links are displayed. When switching to a certain "slide" of the panoramic tour, you can set the angle - the direction of view and the viewing angle.

To control the view, it is proposed to use the mouse or navigation buttons. In the settings of Panotour Pro, you can choose templates for the design of these navigation elements, as well as add musical accompaniment. Moreover, it is not necessary to include music in your tour: for example, the panorama of the sea coast can be decorated with the sound of the surf and the cries of seagulls. Panorama control templates allow you to use the full screen view function. In this case, the journey through the virtual tour will be as realistic and comfortable as possible.

You can also add a glare effect to a panoramic image from light entering the camera lens. If it is used in a bright area, such as the sun in the frame, the effect of presence will be enhanced. When you change the angle inside the virtual circular panorama, the highlight will change direction.

By the way, interactive panoramas and virtual tours are suitable not only for creating a virtual walk through memorable places, they can also be found in another, quite practical application. With their help, you can, for example, create visual presentations of architectural projects, exhibition pavilions, apartments and other things.

⇡ Conclusion

When you return from your travels, your friends will have something to show - there will be enough photos and video footage taken by the end of the vacation. But no matter how professionally video filming and pictures are taken, all these small fragments of summer happiness will not be enough to convey the atmosphere of the places you have visited. However, if you spend just half an hour and create a virtual tour of the pictures taken on vacation, you can not only conduct a “tour” for friends, but also relive the pleasant moments of your vacation yourself.

Well, in order to draw inspiration for creating circular panoramas and virtual tours, we advise you to look at interactive photo albums on the 360-vr.net website, made by a professional photographer Andrei Salnikov from St. Petersburg. He conquers the most beautiful peaks in the world, photographs them and publishes virtual tours on his website. With the ascent chart, you can admire panoramic photos taken at different heights.

Virtual tours are one of the most effective and persuasive ways of presenting information today, as they allow for exciting virtual tours and give the viewer the complete illusion of presence. The fact is that, unlike a video or a regular series of photographs, a virtual tour has interactivity. So, during a trip, you can zoom in or out on an object, look around, examine individual details of the interior in detail, view a panorama from afar, look up and down, approach a selected point or move away from it, move from one panorama to another through active zones. another, for example, to walk around separate rooms, etc. And all this can be done at the right pace and in the order that is convenient for a particular viewer. In this way, for example, you can walk around the whole house from the inside and even inspect it from the outside or take a virtual tour of an exotic island without leaving your own apartment.

With the help of virtual tours, you can visually demonstrate to the viewer the appearance of an office, exhibition and store, show him inside and out houses or cars for sale, familiarize him with the interior design of a restaurant, hotel or fitness club, present the main attractions of a tourist trip, allow him to wander around halls of museums and exhibitions, etc. However, the technology for creating virtual tours has received the greatest recognition in the field of real estate today it is widely used by the world's leading real estate companies, such as Century21, Coldwell Banker, Rubloff, Winkworth, Corcorans, etc. Russian realtors are no exception the pioneer in the use of virtual tours in Russia has become real estate portal Home Seekers (http://www.homeseekers.ru/allnews.htm).

The main options for hosting virtual tours are Web sites and CD presentations. The presence of tours on Web sites is especially important for those companies in which the appearance of premises and interiors is an important part of the business (hotels, restaurants, real estate firms, salons, shops, travel companies, etc.). The presence of a virtual tour on the site helps companies to attract the attention of visitors, and therefore increase the number of potential customers. Viewing tours on the Internet is usually carried out in an Internet browser environment, subject to the support of a Java applet. Given that a number of users do not have a Java machine installed, some developers additionally create versions of tours that can be played, for example, in a flash player. Web-based virtual tours are quite modest in size and load quickly, but differ from CD tours in lower image quality.

Virtual tours recorded on CD are viewed using special tour browsers and are not limited by strict requirements in terms of their size, so that they can contain high-quality photo panoramas and therefore are unusually effective. Such tours can be an integral component of electronic presentations or are a stand-alone software product representing a company, product, technology, etc. Tour discs can be distributed at specialized exhibitions and fairs to potential customers, and, unlike leaflets and brochures familiar to everyone, they are not sent in the trash after a quick look.

Virtual tours are very popular. According to statistics from Realtor.com, tour-enhanced real estate sites are visited 40% more often by potential clients, and a British Market Research Bureau report shows that 80% of home Internet users use the Internet when searching for a property to buy and view virtual tours before direct contact with a real estate agency. Moreover, according to American experts, all real estate firms that have begun to use virtual tours have experienced a real increase in sales.

What is meant by virtual tour?

A virtual tour is a combination of panoramic photographs (spherical or cylindrical), when the transition from one panorama to another is carried out through active zones (they are called anchor points or transition points) placed directly on the images, and also taking into account the tour plan. All this can be supplemented by foreground voice acting and background music, and if necessary, ordinary photos, videos, flash videos, tour plans, explanations, contact information, etc.

Virtual tours are based on photo panoramas, which differ from ordinary photographs in the interactive nature of viewing. This means that when viewing a panoramic photo, the user sees only that part of the image that he is interested in at the moment, and that, if desired, he can look around, look up and down, and zoom in or out on individual parts of the image. Looking at an ordinary photograph, the viewer sees only what is shown to him, and cannot control the viewing process. It is even more interesting if the user of a virtual tour can move between panoramas through active zones or guided by a tour map.

Advantages of using virtual tours

The main advantage of virtual tours is the ability to save time, both for the party representing the tour (seller) and for the viewer (potential buyer or client). In addition, for the buyer, a virtual tour acts as an unobtrusive guide, and for sellers, as evidenced by a considerable number of reports, the use of tours helps to actively attract new customers, since the tours themselves turn into an effective sales tool.

Buyers in virtual tours are attracted by the fact that they can get acquainted with the object at any time convenient for them, and in addition, there is the possibility of a preliminary, and very detailed inspection of all potentially interesting objects available to the seller. As a result, the list of objects (apartments, houses, cars, hotels, restaurants, fitness clubs, etc.) that need to be personally visited or examined is significantly reduced. Moreover, in a number of areas (for example, in tourism), where a preliminary personal inspection of objects is generally impossible, a tour that complements the description optimizes the process of studying possible offers.

For the seller, the main advantages of virtual tours can be considered the following:

attracting interest to the company, increasing its prestige, and, consequently, acquiring new customers, since virtual tours today are of interest to the majority of visitors, increase the number of potential customers and increase the company's income;
reducing the time between the creation of the tour and the acquaintance of the buyer with it. In the traditional version of the business, booklets are used to familiarize the buyer with the proposed objects, but a lot of time passes from the moment the booklet is created to when it is in the hands of a potential buyer. Another thing virtual tour, which becomes available to millions of Internet users almost immediately after its creation;
the possibility of multiple use of the same tours on the Internet, even on different servers, and in the form of CD presentations that can be shown at the client's office, at an exhibition, etc. All this allows you to expand the reach of the audience;
simplicity and efficiency of placing new, updating and replacing old virtual tours, which is a guarantee of the relevance of the information provided.

About the technology of creating virtual tours

The process of creating virtual panoramas can be divided into three stages: photographing the object, processing the resulting images, and final assembly of the virtual tour.

The first step in creating virtual tours is shooting an object, which is a very laborious and extremely responsible process, since the quality of the panorama will directly depend on its results. To obtain high-quality panoramas with minimal distortion, a number of rules should be followed:

the camera must be set in such a way that, with the selected aperture, all frames in the series are in focus (it is best if the camera is in the center of the circle being shot);
a set of images to be stitched must be taken in such a way that the seams of the future spherical panorama are located in sufficiently uniform places (for example, on monolithic walls in the case of real estate objects);
the tripod head must be equipped with levels that are designed for strict positioning of the camera in space;
for all three shots, the camera must be synchronized in the horizontal and vertical planes the camera is aligned using levels;
the angles of the circular rotation of the camera must be equal to 120 °, which is regulated by the turn signal scale.

Photo panoramas are created from several specially prepared overlapping photographs (Fig. 1) using special programs that stitch images into a single panorama, removing invariably occurring distortions (Fig. 2). There are quite a lot of such stitching programs today, and each program uses a special technology for stitching images and its own format for creating panoramas, and the stitching itself can be done in automatic, manual or mixed mode. You can view photo panoramas using special browsers, and you need to choose the latter based on the format of the panoramic file. Many types of photo panoramas can also be viewed in an Internet browser, but only if the Java applet is supported or a special plug-in is installed.

Virtual tours are collected from pre-created photo panoramas in other specialized applications tour builders. In most cases, the program for developing virtual tours is focused on its own format of panoramic files (although sometimes it is possible to import panoramas from other formats), so in practice the tour builder is used together with a stapler from one manufacturer. Separate photo panoramas are interconnected by smooth transitions due to the allocation of active zones on them (special areas on photo panoramas), which are not only responsible for moving from one panorama to another, but are also used to display additional information about objects. The technology of active zones makes it possible to focus on certain parts of the panorama on interior details, on new products in shopping centers, on interesting sights, on specific exhibition stands, as well as on any other information that a virtual visitor needs to pay attention to. In addition, it is possible to include interactive floor plans and navigators in the virtual tour, allowing users to determine their “location”. Viewing the tour can be carried out according to the plan, by transition points, or automatically in accordance with the plan defined when creating the project. Virtual tours, like photo panoramas, can be viewed both in an Internet browser (Fig. 3 and 4), and in specialized virtual tour browsers specific to each tour builder (Fig. 5).

as a virtual brochure

as a 3D model

in a dedicated browser

Software applications for creating virtual tours

Programs for building tours are distinguished by a friendly, intuitive interface and ease of use, and also provide an impressive result in a relatively short period of time (although the latter is possible only if there are perfect images stitched into a panorama). As a result, a minimum of time is spent on developing a software product, while using other technologies, it would take a week of work for an entire development team to obtain the same result.

In addition, there are two points to note regarding tour builders. Firstly, there are very few well-known programs with such capabilities, and the American company IPIX Corporation (http://www.ipix.com), which is the author of virtual tour technology, is considered the undisputed leader in this area. Therefore, it is its software products that are most often used in the development of tours, including in Russia. However, there are very interesting alternatives from other companies that also provide excellent results, but cost much less.

Secondly, when choosing a tour builder, you need to keep in mind that slightly different principles for paying for programs apply here. If you usually have to pay for the program when you buy the software or acquire a time-limited license for it, then in this case you may need to pay extra for the panoramas used. This payment principle was introduced by IPIX Corporation and is currently actively used by it. For this reason, the cost of virtual tours may be much higher than expected. However, there is also software for which the traditional type of payment is implemented. There are also completely free programs, but also with payment for the created panoramas. For example, Spherical Panorama, Inc. today offers free products you pay only for the use of ready-made panoramic images, and the cost of a license for this software is much lower than that of other analogue programs.

And now we present to your attention the most interesting applications for the development of virtual tours.

Easypano Studio 2005

Developer: Easypano Inc.

Distribution size: Easypano Studio 2005 79.07 MB, Panoweaver 4.0 40 MB, Tourweaver 1.30 41.84 MB

Distribution method: shareware (demo versions http://www.easypano.com/download/software/studio2005_win.exe , http://www.easypano.com/download/software/panoweaver400_win.exe , http://www.easypano.com /download/software/twwin.exe)

Price: Easypano Studio 2005 $999.99, Panoweaver 4.0 $599.95, Tourweaver 1.30 $499.95

Work under control: Windows 98/98 SE/Me/2K/XP and Mac OS X

Easypano Studio 2005 is a tool for quickly creating professional virtual tours, which successfully combines rich functionality with simplicity and convenience. The package includes two software modules: Panoweaver 4.0 (Fig. 6) and Tourweaver 1.30 (Fig. 7). The first of them is a 360X360 spherical panorama stitcher, which is possible both in fully automatic and manual mode, and the second one allows you to combine panoramas, as well as other information, in virtual tours. The Tourweaver application can be used not only in conjunction with Panoweaver, but also standalone, as it supports the import of panoramas created in other staplers. For example, you can import cylindrical panoramas obtained in Panorama Factory, or panoramas generated in 3D packages, in particular in 3D Studio Max. In addition, it is possible to import panoramas from digital panoramic cameras Kaidan’s 360 One VR, Panoscan, RoundShot, etc.

Rice. 6. Creating a panoramic shot in Panoweaver

The package is intended for professionals, but the program's user-friendly interface, detailed help system, and study tours included in the delivery allow even beginners to work with it. The virtual tours created in the environment of this application have unique navigational capabilities: in addition to the classic control of buttons and the mouse when viewing panoramas and moving from one panorama to another, there is built-in support for an interactive map with a compass effect, which provides additional options for managing the tour.

The Panoweaver module supports the main graphic formats for stitching images: JPG, TIFF, BMP, PICT, PNG, TGA, is compatible with a wide range of cameras, provides full control over the process of stitching images, and supports PTViewer, QTVR, MGI Panoviewer and VRML as output file formats . In addition, the program allows you to correct some artifacts that may appear due to inaccurate camera installation relative to the horizontal, axis shift when turning the camera, as well as due to the influence of a number of other mechanical and optical factors.

Virtual tours created in the Tourweaver environment can include spherical and cylindrical panoramas, regular images, music, links, hotspots, interactive maps and plans, regular slideshows, and text. In addition, the tour can be supplemented with a variety of information about the company, including its name, fax, telephone, Web site, email address and logo. Jump points can be set not only when moving from one panorama to another, but also to open a static image (for example, a map or plan), to follow a link, to play a music file or animation, to access a virtual compass that makes it easier to navigate the tour . Support for built-in templates, the list of which can be increased by purchasing additional template libraries on the program website, as well as a variety of panorama display effects, provides a variety of tour design options. All this opens up huge opportunities for tour developers, since, based on the same initial information, you can create a whole series of tours, which allows you to find the most effective data presentation option in a particular case and achieve an excellent result.

Each of the objects embedded in the tour has a whole series of properties that are easy to manage through the Properties window. So, you can change the position of objects, their size, mouse response when moving or clicking, you can set the background or add a border, change visibility, etc., which allows you to quickly and easily adjust the settings and get the desired effect. The created virtual tour can be saved on a computer or immediately published on an FTP server, for which you just need to specify the server settings. This will convert BMP image files to JPEG format with a user-defined compression ratio. In the case of local saving, files for autorun of the tour from CD will be automatically generated. Tours saved in the program's native format require an Easypano Tourweaver viewer to view, while tours exported to Java Applet are viewed normally in an Internet browser.

360 Degrees Of Freedom Developer Suite 6.3

Developer: 360 Degrees Of Freedom

Distribution size: 19.73 MB

Distribution method: shareware (30-day watermark demo available after registration at: http://www.360dof.com/survey/survey.php?dl=developersuite)

Price:$395

Work under control: Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP

The Developer Suite professional package for developing virtual tours includes several applications, the main ones being 360 Image Assembler, 360 Panorama, 360.3D Project and VRbrochure Project. 360. The package has an intuitive, strict and at the same time convenient interface, and detailed documentation, supplemented with useful examples, reduces the time it takes to master it. All this, combined with a fairly modest (compared to many analogues) size, simplicity and ease of use, as well as ample opportunities in terms of individualization of the result, allows us to consider the Developer Suite application one of the best in its class.

The Image Assembler module is an application for automatic, semi-automatic or manual stitching of individual images taken from any standard digital camera into 360X360 panoramas (Fig. 8). The 360 Panorama application allows you to create simple virtual tours based on 360X360 panoramas (Fig. 9). The 360.3D Project module (Fig. 10) is designed to generate interactive three-dimensional models of objects that are indispensable for demonstrating goods offered by companies in interactive product catalogs, and at the same time can become one of the elements of a virtual tour.

Rice. 8. Creating a panorama in the Image Assembler environment

at 360 panorama

But the greatest interest in this regard is the virtual tour builder VRbrochure Project (Fig. 11), which allows you to combine photo panoramas and 3D models into a virtual tour with the formation of a connection between them through the usual transition points. In addition to panoramas and 3D models, the tour may also include slide shows, animations, as well as interactive maps and plans. And for greater effectiveness and individuality, the tour can be supplemented with a variety of special effects (gradual appearance and disappearance, image scaling, flickering of certain areas, etc.), choose a suitable graphic template and design style for it.

in VR Brochure

The resulting tours are easy to view and allow you to effectively present information about the property being sold to potential customers. Viewing tours (both simple panoramic tours and those showing 3D models and presenting virtual brochures) is usually carried out in an Internet browser with a Java applet. However, when creating tours, you can additionally include the option of creating a tour focused on viewing in a flash player, which allows you to reach the maximum possible audience.

SP_VTB 4.10, SP_STITCHER 3.2

Developer: Spherical Panorama Inc.

Distribution size: SP_VTB 4.10 7.94 MB, SP_STITCHER 3.2 11.7 MB

Distribution method: freeware (the latest versions of programs can be downloaded at: http://sp.zdt.ru/download_rus.php)

Price: free of charge, the use of ready-made panoramic images is paid; cost of one license: $12 when purchasing from 1 to 9 licenses; $8 for purchases from 100 to 999 licenses; for the CIS countries there is a special discount

Work under control: Windows 95/98/Me/NT4/2000/XP

Spherical Panorama specializes in developing software for creating various types of panoramas and combining them into virtual tours, however, in our case, the most interesting are the SP_STITCHER image stitcher (Fig. 12) and the SP_VTB virtual tour builder (Fig. 13). They are delivered as separate applications, however, when developing virtual tours, they complement each other, since SP_VTB allows you to create tours only based on panoramas in spf format obtained in the SP_STITCHER environment. Both apps are fairly easy to use, and the included detailed documentation, several fisheye stitching test kits, and a trial virtual tour will get you up and running quickly.

in the SP_VTB application

SP_STITCHER fast automatic three-shot fishege stitcher that can be configured to work with both standard panoramic equipment (IPIX, Kadian, etc.) and non-standard ones. This allows us to recommend this program not only to professionals, but also to ordinary amateur photographers. SP_STITCHER supports automatic and manual modes of operation and, if necessary, allows you to perform image correction: perform color correction, get rid of barrel distortion, optimize the position of the seams of fisheye images, etc.

SP_VTB allows you to combine spherical and circular panoramas into virtual tours, supplementing them with background music, sound, text comments and special objects: static photos, videos, flash videos, a tour plan, etc. As a plan (map) of a virtual tour, you can use any images in jpg, gif, bmp formats from 100X100 to 800X570 pixels. It is possible to connect videos in avi or mpg formats, which will be played when switching from one panorama to another.

The process of creating virtual tours is not difficult and can be quickly mastered even by non-professionals, and the ability to choose a graphical shell for it allows you to achieve originality to some extent. To make a virtual tour of the tour, which is an exe-file, no additional software is required, since the standard tour browser is automatically embedded in the file. If necessary, you can use special virtual tour browsers, such as the SP_VST application, designed for real estate agents and providing various viewing options with different types of downloads, including Internet downloads, and with the ability to use a configuration file.

IPIX Interactive Studio 1.4.2, IPIX Real Estate Wizard, IPIX i-Linker 3.1.0

Developer: IPIX Corporation

Distribution size: IPIX Interactive Studio 1.4.2 37 MB, IPIX Real Estate Wizard 9.13 MB, IPIX i-Linker 3.1.0 4.7 MB

Distribution method: shareware (feature limited demo versions are available after registration at: http://www.ipixstore.com/dl/dldetail.cfm?detailid=7)

Price: IPIX Interactive Studio 1.4.2 depending on licensing option (example: 1 year license with unlimited panoramas costs $899; full list of license types can be found at: http://www.ipixstore.com/cart/ index.cfm?cat=3&subcat=13), IPIX Real Estate Wizard with five keys (additional keys sold separately) $20, IPIX i-Linker 3.1.0 $99.95, IPIX Multimedia Toolkit $99 .

Work under control: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP, Mac OS X 10.2 or higher

As applications for creating virtual tours, IPIX offers the IPIX i-Linker 3.1 and IPIX Multimedia Toolkit software packages, which make sense to use only in conjunction with the IPIX linker, since both applications are configured to use IPIX panoramas. The packages IPIX Interactive Studio and IPIX Real Estate Wizard can be used as programs for stitching panoramas. All of these programs are easy to use and have detailed and well-illustrated documentation.

IPIX Interactive Studio (Fig. 14) panorama stitcher for professionals, which features a large set of convenient tools for precise stitching of hemispheres, retouching seams and entire panoramas. The IPIX Real Estate Wizard program (Fig. 15) is focused on real estate applications and is designed for realtors. Even a child can create a panorama in its environment, but the possibilities of manual processing of panoramic images in the program are minimized to the limit, which negatively affects the quality of the created panoramas. To save panoramas, specialized paid keys are required.

in IPIX Interactive Studio

The IPIX i-Linker application (Figure 16) is used to create virtual tours based on IPIX panoramas for the web and CD, and is best used in conjunction with IPIX Interactive Studio. The program allows you to set the automatic movement of the virtual camera across the panorama, add background sound, select transition points and link them with hyperlinks to additional information (texts, photos, audio, transitions) and other panoramas.

The IPIX Multimedia Tool Kit is used to quickly generate simple template virtual tours and is also designed primarily for realtors, and therefore can be a good addition to the IPIX Real Estate Wizard. The package includes three software modules: IPIX Brochure, IPIX TV-Studio and IPIX e-gallery. The IPIX Brochure module is a simple and convenient tool for generating simple virtual tours in the form of electronic brochures that are posted on the company's Web site and allow you to clearly present the necessary information about the company, technologies, etc. in the form of interconnected panoramas, ordinary photographs, text and contact information. IPIX TV-Studio allows you to create tours with simple navigation through iPIX images, including automatic panning, pausing for a closer look at the image and zooming in on individual sections. Viewing the tour can be accompanied by playing a melody or listening to comments. The IPIX e-gallery module (Figure 17) is designed to quickly generate simple virtual tours to be sent via email. Tours are created according to a template, and the tours themselves contain an IPIX image, contact information, and a brief description of the tour.