In addition to my comment dated from 08/03/2009 I want to show a way to save those old fisheye hemisphere fotos for further immersive / panoramic use. Reason for this change of technology are the increasingly annoying problems we all encounter with the once state-of-art-technology “iPIX” on today browsers (I know there have always been a large number of Quicktime-Lovers also = Apple Webdesigner ).

Nevertheless here is the way to do that:
1) Open your two fisheye-hemispheres in a programm as “iPIX Interactive Studio” or “Panoweaver” (You can open the original 2 Fisheye hemisphere or you load an existing “built” iPIX).
2) Stich the two hemispheres avoiding seams if you still have the fisheye photos.
3) Select as output-format “Equirectangular Projection” with a proportion of 2:1 (width : height).
4) Save it.

The resulting picture should look like that one, I made at the Palma Boat Show:

Equirectangular projection of Yacht - Palma Boat Show

This picture can be used as a texture for the inside of a sphere, in the middle of which you can place a Papervision3D (www.pv3d.org) camera filming this scene interactively.

As a result you will get an ADOBE Flash bubble as can be seen on Google Streetview. This way any photographer could built its own “Streetview”.

A nice feature Google Earth implemented is their neat Java-Script-API for interacting with the 3D World.

Here is a screenshot from a Pugin Implementation at SOFTMAX.ES.

Microsite for use in Google Earth

OK .. so put here an Ipix (old style virtual reality). I am pretty sure, that on most browsers it will not work – the ultimate test.


I am very curious …

I added a screenshot of a Google Earth Plugin Implementation (from site http://www.softmax.es/internetmarketing-geomarketing/marketing-google-earth.html ) .

Screenshot of Google Earth Plugin with Sketchup Model

This is next level Google Maps and Google Earth. With this technology you can enter into a “bubble” looking around in the streets as you would stroll youself in the streets. Unfortunately there are not so much European places where you can gather that experience.

Here is an example in Barcelona.

Umapper is a portal where users can create and administrate their own maps. The cool thing: They exchange your geo (=geographical) information with Google Maps / Earth as well as Microsofts Virtual Earth counterpart.

Here an example of a Umapper.com map how everyone can implement it in his existent site:

Dies ist ein Beispiel eines interaktiven Panoramafotos wie es auch auf Google Earth oder Google Maps implementiert werden kann. Ein Beispiel für eine Implementierung auf Google Earth finden Sie hier: http://www.softmax.es/internetmarketing-geomarketing/marketing-google-earth.html

Das folgende 3D Panorama ist 633 KB gross. Klicken Sie auf den folgenden Screenshot, um das Panorama zu laden…