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In the process of doing this project, many approaches have been suggested by members of group. By examining the function and intention of our website, 360° panoramic photograph is adopted to show the literary high street. This type photograph provides a wild range of angles to view buildings or sceneries. By removing mouse, users can spin the picture easily. They can look any details as they want, then click any place, the related literal narration will turn up. It is convenient to read for visitors, also could provoke their interest. Additionally, we also set up a Mobile App to suit mobile suit mobile visitors. It is easier to use flash to make 360° panoramic photograph. However, it is known that flash language cannot be supported by mobile app through discussing with Jone Lee director in a meeting, panoramic photograph therefore we must adopt other editing language instead of flash such as JavaScript. Nevertheless, JavaScript is difficult for us to use, therefore we do many researches on Internet and books to get helps.
We browsed many tourist website and many industries or companies official website, it can be seen that 360° panoramic photograph is used wildly to show the places of historic interest, scenic spots and famous structures such as old church, the tower, popular tourist cities, towns and streets. For example, BBC news reports that panoramic photographs, or 360 virtual tours, have been around for many years. According to Phil Coomes (2011) ，”Take a look, move left, right and up and down. Great, but then zoom, and zoom and zoom. The detail is just phenomenal.” In his article ‘how to take a 15.5 gigapixel panoramic photo ’, he has described the advantage and disadvantage of 360° panoramic photograph, how to make it and the adopted technologies. He also has suggested the problem is face to editors in the process. This article enlightened me on making the photograph. It not only helps us to resolve the present technology problem also brings us new creative idea on design. In this article, he also suggested that “Virtual Tours are interactive spherical panoramas that are made up of a number of individual images stitched together and then projected in such a way as to make the viewer feel like they are actually there – it is sometimes known as Virtual Reality photography”, this suggestion make us think to combine Google mapping and 360° panoramic photograph. Via this combination, it could provide more conveniences to visitors, and improve the accuracy of location information.
With the development of the information technology and the app technology, 360° panoramic photograph has become ‘’an excellent journalistic tool for showing the picture and telling the story of its full context” (Spherical Images Ltd). It provide a wild angle to visitors to see the place or structures, also it bring visitors to transport in a scene. By removing the mouse or touch the smart phone screen, visitors can look anywhere they want as they are in.
Our project is to show the literary history of Edinburgh’s high street. It is intended to provide a convenient way to tourists to get literary and historic information about this street. According to examining the characteristic and function of our website, and In order to attract more visitors and help them to identify the location and rote, 360°panoramic photograph was adopted to display the scenic spots of this street. Actually, we used new photo technology which is GPS photo in the website. The GPS photo technology combined with multimedia applications and multipoint videoconferencing. It is possible to display ancestral roots locations over thousands of miles by photo imaging with GPS tracking via Google maps and 360 degree virtual panorama tours. It is an amazing new way to organize our photographs with digital mapping.
Finally, all items of this project were worked out, because of the limitation of our technology, the present photography can only spin 180 degree. But compared with the normal photo, it is also with more advantages to provide wilder angle and create a feel ‘you are here’for visitors. We hope our website can provide visitor a comment and comfortable way to know about literary high street. Certainly, the further improving will be continued. In addition, all feedback and suggest could help us to perfect our design to enhance visitors experience.
References:
Phil Coomes(2011) How to take a 15.5 gigapixel panoramic photo Available at: www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-13014439 (Accessed: 12 April 2011).
Spherical Images Ltd (2012) Available at: milan.arounder.com/it/ (Accessed: 2012).