In cylindrical 360° panoramas, virtual scenes can be viewed all the way around their own axis. A new system now allows these scenes to be explored interactively by augmenting them with sound, pictures or films, creating living representations of enclosed spaces.
Who hasn’t gone on a shopping spree only to end up wishing they could just toss line-jumping customers out of the store, instantly conjure up a knowledgeable salesperson, and switch off the annoying din blaring from the speakers? This scenario could soon be possible, at least in a virtual sense.
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications HHI in Berlin have expanded on a system that can display real environments as high-resolution 360-degree panoramas rather than simply on two-dimensional monitors. Videos, moving or stationary objects, and sound can be embedded in the display.