Working with 360-images

Manipulate the pictures with Pixlr.com

We use the online service https://pixlr.com/editor/,

The pictures that come out of the camera are standard JPG files. This is the same type of files that come from most cameras. These files can be edited easily in an image editor, such as the online Pixlr.com. If you edit the images, make sure you have the correct metadata (see below).

The camera can be controlled by a mobile app, both for Android og iOS. However, we are going to use the camera with a delay: place it inside the map. press the button and wait a few seconds.

This camera is used to make a tour of the campus Kronstad: home.hib.no/mediesenter/360_kronstad/campuskronstad.html

And a similar example from the new airport at Flesland: flesland360.no

The camera used is a Ricoh Theta. This camera is small enough to be placed inside a scale model. This is a special type of camera, with a lens on each side of the camera body. Each lens captures a little more than 180 degrees, both horizontally and vertically. The camera puts together the two sub-shots of what becomes a complete spherical image.

The height of the camera is a little more than 10 cm. This is about the same height as a person - in scale 1:15. Thus, the size ratio between camera and model becomes roughly the same as between a person and the full-scale environment.

Here you can open the pictures. They will look a bit weird, since they are made to be mapped out over a 360-sphere.

You open the panorama image and duplicate the layer by right-clicking on the layer and selecting "Duplicate layer" or just dragging the layer down to the icon marked to the right of the screen below. When you have a copy of the layer you can hide the original (the bottom layer).

The next step is to cut away the image information from the window openings, so we can see the pictures we add in the layers below. Here you can use the scrap tool and eraser, highlighted to the left of the screen below. Make sure that the correct layer is active when cutting away image information. Once you are happy with the result, go to the File menu and save the image in JPG format.

The manipulated images can then be something similar to this, where the lower part of the image originates from the model while the upper part is taken from the terrain:

We can use an easy to use image manipulation service, like Lunapic,com, to give an image a completely other look:

The image can then look like this

Adding metadata

For the image sharing services to understand that they should display the images as 360 spheres, they must have the correct metadata. All image files contain so-called EXIF-data (Exchangeable image file format), data that tells something about the image. The software Exif Fixer can be used for this purpose.

You must install this program on your own computer, but afterwards, just open the panorama image and hit "Add metadata." The program writes new Exif data to the image file, which, among other things, tells the programs that will show the image that it is a 360 panorama:

Publishing

See an example

Make a virtual tour with makevt.com

makevt.com is a free service that lets you put together more images to a virtual tour, where the user can navigate between multiple 360 spheres:

We are then going to share the images in a shared album on Google Photos. the we will try the experience through VR-glasses, in our case Google Cardboard

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