Mainstreaming Immersive, VR Imagery for the Geoweb (or, "The Beauty of the World, Around You" )

While 360 degree photography has existed for a century, today’s medium of remapped, interactive panoramic photography has exploded in the last 3-4 years, thanks to the simultaneous development of dSLR cameras, broadband, internet mapping APIs, sufficient processing power for image stitching, and development of the (largely open source) software stack for truly high-quality 360 imagery.

The last few years has likewise seen a large growth in spherical panoramic photography by professionals and amateur photographers. While any camera can be used to create a spherical panorama, the craft of VR photography still remains for now a niche due to the requirement for a fisheye lens to produce a serious volume of VR images. Still, VR photography is today practiced by thousands of people worldwide. How can this be increased still further?

In 2007 Google released Street View - similar but in essential ways different from 360 Cities’ focus. One real benefit of Street View was that it brought VR photography closer to the mainstream. Millions of people are more aware of the existence and benefit of VR imagery - although we should agree that most of the potential hasn’t been realized, and most applications have yet to be developed.