World-Heritage-Tour

Inhaltliche Beschreibung

The Project began July 4th 2001 and is still growing. It is realised mainly by one person, Tito Dupret.

Mission:
T.D.: – "Creating a documentary image bank with panoramic pictures and interactive virtual reality films for all sites registered as World Heritage by the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)."
- "Dissemination of these virtual reality movies for documentation and promotion of the World Heritage."
- "Using multimedia techniques in an edutainment mode to raise awareness on the preservation of the World Heritage."
- "Promoting the notion of sustainable tourism in the head of local administration, tourists and travellers."

Purpose:
T.D.: – "Enhancing our knowledge of the world in order to improve tolerance amongst people. Promoting the values of peace and sharing the motto: "Tous parents, tous différents" ("Although not the same, we are all related").
- "Raising attention on our planet, comparable to a small garden that belongs to all of us. The WHTour would like to offer a permanent window to this garden, stressing the need for its care and attention."

- "I hope WHTour gives knowledge and gives the need to go on site for own
experience."

Public Reaction to the project:
T.D.: "Excellent reaction from web visitors and professional Virtual Reality world. Excellent feedback in the press (articles in New York Times last September and 3' subject to come on CNN international)."

Wish for the Future:
T.D.: "The luck and performance to document all World Heritage sites with the hope to share this visual experience with the largest audience possible, from children to researchers."

Technische Beschreibung

VR-Film opens up the world to us in a way hitherto unknown, by allowing people to visit almost any place from practically any location without time constraints. It is a media drawing upon traditional photography and film industry. It depicts more than a photo but without the time limits of a movie. It is an interactive media meaning that the audience is active. The audience gives life to the film by viewing it from various angles, zooming in/out and clicking hyperlinks/icons. It is also a very "light" and practical media. One person with skills and a backpack is enough to cover any site in the world. For this reason, it is inexpensive to produce compared to other animated systems. Moreover, it is a broad-ranging medium insofar as it can be supported on many different media systems, from a light web interface to heavy cinema productions or any printing support and at any quality level.

Taking a selection of digital images, each VR film is made by stitching together 24 of these images. The computer creates the effect of being inside a sphere, giving the user the scope to view all around oneself at 360 x 180 degrees. In fact, this "sphere" is made with the six separate sides of a cube: the front, right, back, left, top, and bottom sides. The borders of each side connect to the others and the illusion is perfect. For the WHTour, all VR films are produced on site with a laptop and then disseminated on the Internet through local connections. Each VR is a 1/2 to 2 days postproduction according to the complexity of stitching.

Hardware / Software

Dupret's only equipment is a monopod, Nikon 4500 with wide lens and his Titanium PowerBook, to which he transfers his digital images to on the fly. For postproduction and dissemination online, he uses Realviz Stitcher 3.5, Adobe Photoshop 7.0, Adobe GoLive 6.0 and Apple QuickTime 6.

Applications:
Every film or picture is available for any purpose that remains within the ethos and philosophy of the WHTour: publications, exhibitions, projections, digital world, film and video documentaries, printed or interactive encyclopedias, etc. As a digital media, images can be transferred on film, DVD, CD-Rom and any digital support: VR films can be animated on request for the cinema, television, DVD or any other video format. Furthermore, digital binoculars can be used and enable people to pan and tilt VR films with the head or hand motion so that the immersion is complete. These binoculars are ideal for digital exhibitions.

Sekundärliteratur

• Michelle Bienias, TITO DUPRET'S WORLD HERITAGE (VIRTUAL) TOUR. In: VRMag
  » http://vrm.vrway.com…AGE_VIRTUAL_TOUR.html [link 02]
• Michelle Bienias, TOMB OF EGYPTIAN PHARAOH OPENED FOR VR PHOTOGRAPHER. In: VRMag
  » http://vrm.vrway.com…_VR_PHOTOGRAPHER.html [link 03]