Virtual Tours & Virtual Reality

VIRTUAL REALITY AND HISTORIC PLACES

Matthew Gibson, Director of Digital Initiatives, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities

Peter Hedlund, Lead Technologist, Encyclopedia Virginia

WHO WE ARE

SESSION OVERVIEW

PANORAMIC PHOTOGRAPHY

Google Street View (web) - Anne Spencer House & Garden example
Google Street View Mobile App
Embedded with context (Encyclopedia Virginia)
Google imagery vs. User Generated Content (UGC) - downtown Charlottesville example

PANORAMIC PHOTOGRAPHY

EXERCISE

Getting Familiar with the Google Street View app

EXERCISE

Find a panorama with the UVa Rotunda in it.

*BONUS*

Locate a panorama showing the arena where UVa men and women's teams play basketball (Hint: it's the same name as the Led Zeppelin bass player)

VIEW PANORAMAS IN VR MODE

CREATING PANORAMAS

Mobile Phone Camera
- + Always with you
- + Depending on the phone's camera, can be quite good image quality
- - hard to create a seamless image
Dedicated 360° Camera (Ricoh Theta)
- + quick and easy
- + relatively affordable($350)
- - image quality not as good as a DSLR
DSLR w/ fisheye lens
- + Great image quality
- - Expensive equipment ($1,500 - $2,000)
- - You have to stitch the images yourself