Dear Mike:
Thank you for writing in about the Surround Video technology used in
Expedia's Full Circles.  Here is some background information about the
images and the technology:

The images in Full Circle are created in a couple of different ways:
1) a special camera that spins around on top of a tripod, and generates a
long strip of film.
2) a regular 35 mm camera on a tripod rigged with a special device that
permits you to take one shot, then rotate the camera a few degrees, then
take another, and etc. This latter kind generates some 12 to 36 still
images. Those are then scanned in, and the seams between the stills are
digitally "sewn" together.

After processing either type to create a digital continous 360 image, we use
Microsoft's Surround Video technology to present that visual warping effect
in a Web page. The user can see by means of either an ActiveX control
(Internet Explorer browsers) or by downloading a plug-in (Netscape users).

There are a few versions of this technology: Surround Video code was created
by Black Diamond Consulting company in NH
http://www.bdiamond.com/surround/surround.htm Their site's got really great
information that explains how it works and how you can use it), and then
that was licensed and adapted by Microsoft. There is also something called
Apple Quicktime VR, which creates much the same effect, but is slightly
different. That technology works on Macs, too. (Do check out their site as
well--it's also good.)The Microsoft technology is not available for use
outside the company, but the Black Diamond and the Apple QTVR software are.

I hope this helps. Thanks again for your interest in Expedia.com's Full
Circle.

Best Wishes,
Jayme Lynes
Assistant Editor
MSN Expedia's Full Circle
http://www.expedia.com



povray.org admin team wrote in message
<362ed33e.12121109@news.povray.org>...
>It will probably only work in IE (when I tried Netscape, it failed to get
the
>plugin).
>
>  http://www.expedia.com/daily/fullcircle/australia/surround.hts
>
>I'd really like to see if we could implement some sort of viewer that would
>allow us to do a similar thing with a POV-Ray rendering ;)
>
>After all, the input image is probably just a large 360 degree strip made
with
>one of those special cameras. With the appropriate rendering it should be
>possible to do the same thing with a plugin (perhaps not that one since
it's
>likely to be Microsoft proprietary).
>
>

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