Jan’s Experiments

Jeffrey Martin, Bruce Pales, and Jan Vrsinsky drink beer as the sun goes down at the Dejvicka station pub beer garden in Prague 6.

This is a 270×270 degree stereographic, or ‘little planet’ projection.

The video was created by Jeffrey Martin (email him at 360 c i t i e s at g mail)

Google Street View is a feature of Google Maps and Google Earth which provides panoramic views of streets so the viewers can look around at any place that has been covered. What is the difference between Google Street View and handcrafted virtual panoramic photography as of today? What is stopping Street View to look as today’s best VR panoramas? What are the current and future technology constraints? How will Street View look in 5 years?

I’ve discovered panoramic 360 (spherical) photography during the fall of 2008 using the great Czech servers Virtual Travel and Hundred-Spired Prague created by inspiring guys Jaroslav and Tomas from Panoramas.cz.

Since then I’ve been having fun with unusual places and locations where a spherical panorama can be taken. I went to a trip to Mexico, Belize and Guatemala which was a great opportunity for me to find such places. Thanks again Jaroslav to lending me your fisheye lens!

I took a lot of spherical panoramas during the trip, all of them handheld, without using a special equipment like a tripod or panohead. If you are a beginner and want to know how to take a handheld spherical panorama without a tripod, check out my 7 Steps to Creating Your First Handheld Spherical Panorama In a Moving Vehicle. The short article contains some useful links too. I also recommend you to read panoguide.com for some interesting info on panoramic photography.

Now I have my own fisheye lens: Sigma 3.5 8mm, so I can experiment even more. Check out some of the panos I’ve taken so far on not so usual locations and at not so usual speeds: