New era of virtual reality
BGSU team develops technology for up close view of far away lands
By: Amanda Hoover
Issue date: 7/18/07 Section: Campus
Imagine taking a tour of Paris' Eiffel Tower. Imagine looking up at the 1,063-foot-high structure and taking a tour of the grounds. Imagine turning 360-degrees and taking in the visual atmosphere of this world-renowned landmark. Now imagine you didn't have to spend any money on airplane tickets, hotel stays and French to English dictionaries.
With a new research project called Pocket Virtual Worlds, you may be able to do just that. While the project is being developed as an educational tool, it does allow users to view carefully mapped and photographed places in the world as if they were walking around themselves.
PVW's co-developer is Larry Hatch, a University professor and chair of the Visual Communications Technology program. Hatch along with the Digital Media Research Group - an ever-changing group of interdisciplinary students from BGSU focused on developments in e-learning, virtual presence and gaming - and another professor, Jared Bendis, from Case Western Reserve University have been working on the project for a little over three years.
How PVW works
As with many new technologies, there is a lot more going into the PVW project than meets the eye. For instance, the 360-degree views are more than just a series of panorama photographs that have been pasted together.
In order to achieve continuity and that feeling of really "being there," Hatch and his team are using a special camera that can take one single photo and capture all 360 degrees. The camera takes the picture with the aid of a convex mirror, the result of which is a picture Hatch explained as resembling what you might see when you look at the reflection of a room in a Christmas bulb.
The next steps involve computer software that first unwraps the camera's distorted image and then re-wraps that image onto the inside of a virtual cylinder - thus allowing the user to 'stand' in the center of that image and view properly corresponding images as they turn around in this virtual world.
With a new research project called Pocket Virtual Worlds, you may be able to do just that. While the project is being developed as an educational tool, it does allow users to view carefully mapped and photographed places in the world as if they were walking around themselves.
PVW's co-developer is Larry Hatch, a University professor and chair of the Visual Communications Technology program. Hatch along with the Digital Media Research Group - an ever-changing group of interdisciplinary students from BGSU focused on developments in e-learning, virtual presence and gaming - and another professor, Jared Bendis, from Case Western Reserve University have been working on the project for a little over three years.
How PVW works
As with many new technologies, there is a lot more going into the PVW project than meets the eye. For instance, the 360-degree views are more than just a series of panorama photographs that have been pasted together.
In order to achieve continuity and that feeling of really "being there," Hatch and his team are using a special camera that can take one single photo and capture all 360 degrees. The camera takes the picture with the aid of a convex mirror, the result of which is a picture Hatch explained as resembling what you might see when you look at the reflection of a room in a Christmas bulb.
The next steps involve computer software that first unwraps the camera's distorted image and then re-wraps that image onto the inside of a virtual cylinder - thus allowing the user to 'stand' in the center of that image and view properly corresponding images as they turn around in this virtual world.
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