Web-based Virtual Tour has become a desirable and demanded application, yet challenging due to the nature of web application's running environment such as limited bandwidth and no guarantee of high computation power on the client side. Image-based rendering approach has attractive advantages over traditional 3D rendering approach in such Web Applications. Traditional geometry-based approach, such as VRML, requires labor-intensive 3D modeling process, high bandwidth and computation power especially for photo-realistic virtual scenes. QuickTime VR and IPIX as examples of image-based approach, use panoramic photos and the virtual scenes that can be generated from photos directly skipping the modeling process. But, QuickTime VR and IPIX may not only require special cameras or effort to take panoramic views but also provide only one fixed-point navigation (look-around and zooming in-out) rather than "walk around", that is a very important feature to provide immersive experience to virtual tourists. Easy and Effective Virtual Tour constructs virtual tour using several snap shots of conventional photos without special tools, build simple 3D space within each photo using spidery mesh, and expand the virtual spaces by connecting each other using simple user intervention to specify correspondence. The expanded virtual space provides virtual tourists with free navigation and immersive experience of walking around through the WWW.
KEYWORDS: Visualization, 3D visualizations, Databases, Visual analytics, Data modeling, Visual process modeling, Analytical research, Networks, Human-machine interfaces, Information visualization
This paper describes information technology being developed to improve the quality, sophistication, accessibility, and pedagogical simplicity of ecological network data, analysis, and visualization. We present designs for a WWW demonstration/prototype web site that provides database, analysis, and visualization tools for research and education related to food web research. Our early experience with a prototype 3D ecological network visualization guides our design of a more flexible architecture design. 3D visualization algorithms include variable node and link sizes, placements according to node connectivity and tropic levels, and visualization of other node and link properties in food web data. The flexible architecture includes an XML application design, FoodWebML, and pipelining of computational components. Based on users’ choices of data and visualization options, the WWW prototype site will connect to an XML database (Xindice) and return the visualization in VRML format for browsing and further interactions.
KEYWORDS: Cameras, 3D modeling, Process modeling, 3D image processing, Visualization, Panoramic photography, Internet, Virtual reality, Data modeling, Lithium
Web-based Virtual Tour has become a desirable and demanded application, yet challenging due to the nature of web application's running environment such as limited bandwidth and no guarantee of high computation power on the client side. Image-based rendering approach has attractive advantages over traditional 3D rendering approach in such Web Applications. Traditional approach, such as VRML, requires labor-intensive 3D modeling process, high bandwidth and computation power especially for photo-realistic virtual scenes. QuickTime VR and IPIX as examples of image-based approach, use panoramic photos and the virtual scenes that can be generated from photos directly skipping the modeling process. But, these image-based approaches may require special cameras or effort to take panoramic views and provide only one fixed-point look-around and zooming in-out rather than 'walk around', that is a very important feature to provide immersive experience to virtual tourists. The Web-based Virtual Tour using Tour into the Picture employs pseudo 3D geometry with image-based rendering approach to provide viewers with immersive experience of walking around the virtual space with several snap shots of conventional photos.
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