Virtual Tour Transitions for Spatial Orientation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current virtual tour implementations using images and panoramas struggle to effectively connect and orient viewers with respect to three-dimensional spaces, making it difficult to understand the space, sense of orientation, and scale of a wider area.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that author and display a motion picture experience of a three-dimensional space using digitally stored 2-D images, allowing users to define locations, view directions, and transitional effects between them, simulating smooth motion between locations through techniques like blending, morphing, and fade-in-fade-out, to enhance viewer understanding of spatial relationships.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If instantaneous popping between panoramic scenes is used for navigation, then navigation speed through wider areas is improved, but viewer understanding of three-dimensional space and sense of orientation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-computing and storing virtual camera positions, directions, and transitions between panoramic scenes. During playback, these pre-prepared virtual camera movements are executed to provide smooth transitions that maintain spatial orientation while enabling navigation through wider areas.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces virtual camera positions and directions as intermediaries between the actual panoramic scenes. These virtual camera elements act as mediators that create smooth visual transitions and maintain spatial context, allowing viewers to understand the three-dimensional space while navigating between locations.
2Area of stationary object
If multiple panoramic scenes are used to describe broader areas, then coverage of three-dimensional space is improved, but difficulty in mentally connecting scenes increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the virtual camera movement into discrete transitions between panoramic scenes. Each scene is processed independently with assigned virtual camera positions and directions, and transitions are created systematically between them. This segmentation approach simplifies the complexity of connecting multiple scenes by treating each connection as a separate, manageable unit.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a universal framework for connecting panoramic scenes through standardized virtual camera transitions. The same virtual camera mechanism can be applied to any pair of scenes, providing a multi-functional solution that works across different scene types and locations, thereby reducing the overall complexity of scene connections.
3Ease of manufacture
If static panoramic images are used, then simplicity of image acquisition is maintained, but ability to describe motion and spatial relationships deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates virtual copies of camera positions and directions that mimic real camera movements between panoramic scenes. These virtual camera copies reproduce the essential motion and spatial relationship information without requiring actual video footage or complex acquisitions, thereby maintaining image acquisition simplicity while recovering motion information.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for authoring and displaying a virtual tour of a three-dimensional space which employs transitional effects simulating motion. An authoring tool is provided for interactively defining a series of locations in the space for which two-dimensional images, e.g., panoramas, photographs, etc., are available. A user identifies one or more view directions for a first-person perspective viewer for each location. For pairs of locations in the series, transitional effects are identified to simulate smooth motion between the pair of locations. The authoring tool stores data corresponding to the locations, view directions and transitional effects for playback on a display. When the stored data is accessed, a virtual tour of the space is created that includes transitional effects simulating motion between locations. The virtual tour created can allow a viewer to experience the three-dimensional space in a realistic manner.