[X] My Assistant

[ngunn]

Viewing the latest wonderful Home Plate mosaics prompts a thought that has often occurred to me before. Why isn't it possible to join up the ends of a panorama to allow for continuous panning in either direction? On the face of it this would seem to be a relatively simple thing (hugely less complicated than a full virtual reality package) and highly desirable for 360 degree views, yet it's never done. Can somebody explain to me where the catch lies?

[ngunn]

Thanks Doug. I suppose the next best thing would be extending a flat pano to say 1.5 revolutions. Still I'm surprised that there isn't a cheap-and-cheerful solution that has become routine by now. As you say the data are all there to do it and I can't see why the software required would be other than extremely simple. ('All pixels move one space left except the leftmost which replaces the rightmost - repeat until finger is removed from arrow key' ) I know I'm being totally naive, and possibly UMSF-centred. Presumably there is insufficient interest in panoramas generally among the wider public for the big software companies to provide it as a standard facility.

[chuckclark]

"Presumably there is insufficient interest in panoramas generally among the wider public for the big software companies to provide it as a standard facility."

Above is meant to be a forum "quote." I've yet to fully absorb the posting format.

Once upon a time, a century ago or so, the Panorama was the hottest thing going, the biggest urban attraction before the era of the moving picture. And the panorama was indeed "connected at the ends," in giant viewing rooms to which a couple would stroll of an evening. World-wide travel was difficult, and this was a way to compensate. If I have my history straight a fellow named Frederick Catherwood produced in New York City Panorama viewing rooms on the order of 100 feet in diameter showing Jerusalem, for example, and, another, Mayan ruined cities.

Atlanta still has something you can still go to called the Cyclorama, a 360 degree Panorama painting depicting a pivotal moment in the civil-war-between-the-states battle of Atlanta.

It is really quite a shame, in my view, that our digital era -- we see 3-D inside a flat screen -- has seen the corruption of this term.

Yes, join those ends up, even if it's only a big enough circle you can stick your head into!