Why now is a great time for VR and digital planetariums

We are at the beginning of a fantastic period for Virtual Reality, the latest of many waves going back as far as I can remember. With a whole field of VR headsets (Oculus Rift, Microsoft Hololens & Google Cardboard to name but 3) all vying to be the next big thing, focus is switching from the devices themselves to what they are going to be used for. After all without content they are nothing more than items that collect dust on a shelf.

Up to now a lot of developers have been focusing on virtual worlds to explore and play in, but now with advances in technology and falling costs the opportunity to shoot 360° video is now within the reach of more people. Everything from multi-camera solutions (360Heros & Google Jump), through single camera / multi lens devices (Giroptic 360Cam & SpheriCam) to single camera / single lens devices (Kodak SP360 & Eye Mirror 360º). None of these devices are perfect, each having their own pro and cons, but all having the ability to shoot 360° video.

Now some of these devices, in my option, have reached a quality / cost / complexity tipping point. Before this if you wanted reasonable quality it came at a cost and required a certain amount of technological know how. But now there are devices that are  affordable, produce reasonable quality content and don't require an in-depth knowledge on the subject. This in turn is resulting in a whole swath of film makers getting access to the format for the first time.

This is where things are getting great for digital planetariums too. You see in most cases the 360° content that is being produced for VR headsets just needs a bit of tweaking to be able to be projected into a dome (something most content creators hadn't even considered as an option). Unfortunately not all content is suitable, especially where the viewer is required to look down! Most domes only covers a 360° x 90° view (the top half of a sphere) so you can look from straight up to the horizon in all directions, but with a bit of adjustment it is possible to extend what is projected to an amount below the horizon as well.

Over the past couple of years I have been experimenting with re-projecting 360° content from a wide list of genre's (artistic, music, action, scenic) with great success. It has provided a fantastic learning experience as to what works / doesn't work in a dome and how people experience the format. It has shown me that digital planetariums aren't just one trick ponies that only show journeys into space. They can just as easily show an immersive environments as VR headsets, placing the viewer in the middle of an all round view.

Some people may question if its worth bothering with digital planetariums as the number of people who have access to one is lower than VR headset ownership and the domes that are out there are already fully booked showing their own content. Well things have changed, there is now a whole new breed of portable digital planetariums that can sit up to 40 adults (or even more children) where ever there is enough space. You don't even have to own one yourself as there are companies that will bring a dome and show your content for you (here in the UK there is a company called Immersive Theatres).

Finally one of the biggest advantages of domes over VR headsets in my eyes is a social one. If what you are looking for is the ability to be immersed in a virtual environment by yourself then maybe a VR headset is for you, but the experience doesn't always have to be like this. The experience could be one that you share with others.

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Playing with Google Map Views

If you just want to get straight to the tour, follow the following link:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Great+Malvern/@52.110278,-2.330287,3a,90y,240.55h,90.68t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1s8VPHNkPUB-QAAAGuqllMng!2e0!3e11!4m2!3m1!1s0x4870f8ee8ec8d3fb:0xad5d1163a51c6fd


After reading about the launch of Google Map Views (http://maps.google.com/views) I thought that I would give it a go and add my own spherical panoramas to Google's Street View eco-system. There seemed to be plenty of people uploading single panoramas but I wanted to give their tour builder a try. Not wanting to start too big I chose Rose Bank Gardens in Malvern as a location to photograph. It's a small park in the centre of Malvern with a little network of paths and few entrance / exit points.

Now here is where I hit my first problem, Rose Bank Gardens wasn't mapped on Google Maps. Without this I would be dropping my panoramas into the middle of no-where. Luckily Google already had this covered with Map Maker (http://www.google.co.uk/mapmaker). It allows anyone to update Google's maps with new or corrected content. Unfortunately updates made to any of these systems aren't instantaneous and each application comes with its own learning curve. The major thing that slows down map updates is the fact that they are peer reviewed. Now in an area where there is lots of activity this might be quite a swift but here in the UK and more importantly the Malvern area it took a while. But after a few revisions I had completed the basic network of paths (I say basic because there are a few that at the time of writing I haven't yet created) and this then allowed me to move onto the next step, Google Map Views.

First I needed to shoot the panoramas. Luckily I had already shot a view by of Walenty Pytel's Buzzards sculpture so that was one down straight away. I picked a bright and sunny Sunday morning to visit Rose Bank Gardens, camera and tripod in hand. As I walked through the park I stopped at key points to shoot panoramas and by the end I had shot 23 new panoramic views. After a bit of processing at home I had 24 jpeg images ready to upload (I had to shrink my original images to meet Google's requirements). Now comes the convoluted bit, first I had to insert some metadata into my jpeg images to get Google to recognise them as panoramas. Luckily Google came to the rescue again providing a web application to do this (http://photo-sphere.appspot.com/).

Next I needed to upload my panoramas to somewhere. Now everything you do with Google is authorised through your Google account and this is no different. I had to upload my 24 panoramas to my Google Plus photo library from where I could finally add them to Google Map Views. Now all this might sound a bit long winded but some of it is being caused by the fact I shoot with my DSLR. Google's preferred route is to use an Android phone which would automatically do a lot of the steps for you.

With all 24 of my panoramas being shown on a map it was a process of placing each panorama in it's correct position, making sure north was pointing north and linking each panorama to each other. Now here is where the next delay came in, to make your panoramas visible to the public they have to be processed by Google. This time it's an automated system that looks at each panoramas to see if it is going to be accepted. Most of mine were accepted first time but a few were rejected due to my copyright notice being outside an acceptable area (not that I could find this area defined anywhere) and one which was rejected for an unknown reason that I had to take up with their support staff. Once they were all accepted the tour was visible for the world to see. To take a virtual wander around Rose Bank Gardens yourself you can follow the following link which will place you at the Belle Vue Terrace entrance:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Great+Malvern/@52.110278,-2.330287,3a,90y,240.55h,90.68t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1s8VPHNkPUB-QAAAGuqllMng!2e0!3e11!4m2!3m1!1s0x4870f8ee8ec8d3fb:0xad5d1163a51c6fd

So what have I learnt through this process? Well with everything being for free don't expect things to happen at the drop of a hat and expect to have to jump through other peoples hoops not ones created by yourself. As for my tour, it uses a method of navigation that people are becoming more and more familiar with all the time which hopefully means less people being stuck on the first view not knowing what to do next. The only warning I give is that if you navigate from one of my panoramic views to a Street View view then currently there's no way back! Outside my tour I've done my small bit to improve the mapping of Malvern by defining Rose Bank Gardens.

Finally what next? Well I want to complete the Rose Bank Gardens tour but I'm going to wait until a fallen stone wall has been fixed (you can see it from the Wells Road entrance). After that who knows, there are plenty of other places to create tours for in Malvern that the Street View Car can't get to, maybe Priory Park?

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