FlyAbout:

Producing FlyAbout Panoramic Virtual Tours

We have automated the FlyAbout video production system to a large extent. Panoramic video is recorded by moving a six-camera FlyCam along interesting paths. Filming panoramic video can be challenging, as it is difficult for the operator to avoid being in the picture! For our "walking tour" productions, the operator crouches underneath a tripod dolly. We have also constructed a roof-mounted camera system that lets the operator drive the camera around in a car (a much more comfortable solution). Each of the six cameras is recorded by a handheld DV camcorder used as a video tape recorder (VTR). These are battery-powered and quite small which makes for a reasonably  portable recording solution. SMPTE time code is synchronously recorded on one audio track of each of the six VTRs for later synchronization. Concurrently, time-stamped GPS location data is recorded synchronously on a laptop computer. 

This is our roof-mounted panoramic camera system:

 

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And this is our camera system, including video and GPS capture hardware. Fairly portable, if you don't mind the spaghetti.

Note the six-camera FlyCam at far left.

 

FlyAbout Post-Production

Once captured, the six video files are individually transferred to a PC via a firewire interface. The component images are corrected for lens distortion and color matching using  patent-pending algorithms. The pictures below show the raw video (from an earlier 4-camera system).

 

These images are unwarped into a cylindrical projection, corrected for camera tilt, offset, and brightness, and stitched into a sequence of composite panoramic images like that shown below. This is done in a batch process, but works at several times real time. The result is a motion JPEG of continuous cylindrical panoramas at the video frame rate of 30 per second. 

For higher-quality demonstration images from our  6-camera system, see the FlyCam page, or return to the FlyAbout overview.