3-D virtual-reality tours use real 360 degree photography to show travel destinations.SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 26, 1996--Product Development Systems Inc. has introduced a new Internet-based virtual reality tour service. The service, called "The Virtual Tour Guide," takes viewers on an interactive walk thru of hotels, resorts, cruise ships This is a list of cruise ships, both those in service and those that have since ceased to operate. Both cruise ships and cruiseferries are included in this list. (Ocean liners are not included on this list, see List of ocean liners. , charter boats, yachts, condominiums, real estate and other environments. A Virtual Tour give the viewer a sense of actually being there. This new service is designed to help sales agents present visual information more effectively. A Virtual Tour is sometimes a better solution than video or slide shows because it captures the viewer's attention through involved interaction. The viewer has full control over what he or she is looking at. "It is ideal for interactive walk-thrus" according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the company's marketing manager, Mike Tucker Mike Tucker (born South Wales) is a special effects expert who worked for many years at the BBC Television Visual Effects Department, and now works as a freelance Effects Supervisor. . PDS's Virtual Tours Virtual Tours The phrases panoramic tour and virtual tour are often used to describe a variety of video and photographic based media. The word panorama indicates an unbroken view, so essentially, a panorama in that respect could be either a series of photographs or panning video is based on Apple Computer's new QuickTime(TM) VR software technology for Windows PCs and Macintosh computers. QuickTime VR The virtual reality version of QuickTime. It allows subjects to be viewed on screen in 3D space. Scenes are compiled from renderings or from multiple still shots taken of all sides. See QuickTime. interactively displays spatial environments by enabling a person to view any direction around a scene. The viewer can even zoom in for a closer inspection from any angle. Product Development Systems creates each seamless 360 degree panoramic image from a series of wide angle photographs taken with a special camera set up. Apple's software is used to assemble the photos together into a single "fish-eye" panorama. The free QuickTime VR player extension (which installs on Macintosh or Windows based (1) (Windows-based; upper case "W") Refers to Microsoft Windows. (2) (windows-based; lower case "w") Having resizable windows. Same as "graphics based" or "GUI based." Graphical user interfaces are all windows based. Contrast with text based. computers) visually corrects and displays a movable viewing window around the fish-eye panorama -- somewhat like dragging a magnifying glass magnifying glass: see microscope. magnifying glass traditional detective equipment; from its use by Sherlock Holmes. [Br. Lit.: Payton, 473] See : Sleuthing over newsprint -- except that the newsprint would be warped and the magnified image would look correct. "Hot spots hot spots acute moist dermatitis. " programmed into the panorama allow a person to "click" on a doorway, for example, and switch to a different panorama, as if he or she entered another room. With this new technology, Product Development Systems also creates QuickTime VR panoramas from computer generated 3-D animation. Simulated 3-D spaces are created with Hollywood's latest computer technologies. Because of the data transfer speed limitation of the Internet, QuickTime VR is far more efficient then video or extensive multi-media slide shows. PDS's Virtual Tours require comparatively little computing resources. An average Virtual Tour designed for the Internet (with about 6 linked panoramas) may only take up to 400-600 kilobytes -- less than half of a floppy disk. With many Internet ready consumers having 14.4 or 28.8 speed modems, this means only minutes in download time. The photography and programming typically cost less than the average color brochure. Product Development Systems delivers Virtual Tours on standard multi-media CD ROM CD ROM Compact Disk Read Only Memory disk that play on both Macintosh and Windows PCs. Delivery is also made via the Internet through the company's own web site services. For more information, please contact: Product Development Systems Inc., 325 W. Republican St., Seattle, WA 98119. Telephone: 206/283-4975. Fax: 206/270-9016. Email: prodevsys@aol.com. -0- Sample available upon request CONTACT: Product Development Systems Inc., Seattle Dave Petrich, 206/283-4975 NOTE TO EDITORS: In the Internet/email addresses noted in this news release, there is an "at" symbol between: -- prodevsys AND aol.com. This symbol may not appear properly (or at all) in some systems. |
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