Quicktime Virtual Reality

Every once in a while a truly revolutionary product appears and opens up a whole new world of possibilities. Apple Computer’s Quicktime VR (QTVR) falls into this category.

Quicktime VR is a hybrid between virtual reality and digital photography. QTVR scenes can be made from photographs, video stills, or computer renderings. Most scenes are made from photographs which provide the best image quality. QTVR scen es are VR spaces. You can look up and down, turn around, zoom in to see detail, or zoom out for a broader view. To photograph a QuickTime VR scene, the photographer puts a 35 mm camera with a 15 mm lens on a tripod and shoots a series of pictures, turning the camera 30 degrees after each exposure fig.1. Then, at a service bureau, the images are digitised and placed on a Photo CD.

Fig.1

Anyone who has tried to piece together photographs to make a panorama will know that it is not possible to simply butt the pictures together as they will not blend smoothly. To solve this problem, QuickTime VR warps the images. The overlapping features ar e then automatically mapped and the images stitched together. Warping makes the stitching possible, but it also creates distortion. Straight lines become curved and features appear bent fig 2.

Fig.2

When a scene is opened, the QuickTime VR Player corrects the distortion, unwarping the part of the image displayed in the Player window (fig.3). As you glance around, the software keeps up with your movements, unwarping and displaying your view of the pan orama “on the fly.” Files are very small, generally less than 540K for full panoramas.

Fig.4

QTVR software will run using only an entry level Macintosh or Windows based computer. There are no hardware plugins. It is downloadable free and comes with many demonstrations and technical information. Questions and comments can be sent to qtvr@atg.apple.com. Some companies offer a service to convert images on Kodak PhotoCD to QTVR .mov files [Details] . The Quicktime VR Authoring Tools suite allows the creation of your own linked panoramic and object movies from photographic, video or computer generated images. The authoring tool runs in the Apple “MPW” environment, a powerful shell with a scripting envi ronment to control the tools, such that you do not have to be a C++ programmer to use it. The software is priced at £425 + VAT and is available from Full Moon Software Distribution Ltd, PO Box 863, Maidenhead, Berks, SL6 0QJ. Tel: 01628 660 242. Fax: 01628 666 084. E-mail: sales@fullmoon.com

[PREVIOUS] [CONTENTS] [CTI-HOME]