A virtual tour is a form of interactive photography that allows a user to explore a location digitally, usually on a website or app.
The first virtual tour was designed by British engineer Colin Johnson and was first publicly performed by Queen Elizabeth II. In 1994 she opened a 1550 depiction of Dudley Castle at the Dudley Castle Visitor Center in the north of England. Since then, they have quickly infiltrated the entertainment, property, and tourism industries, and are now foraying into the digital world, boosting classic photography with interactive experiences.
Many of the earlier examples were produced in video form and simply consisted of a photographer walking around somewhere. With the introduction of new technology, interactive panoramas have come to replace more linear experiences where space is photographed using still images before being pieced together using computer software. This 360-degree panorama or “scene” is then assembled with other scenes to form a tour. Tours allow the user to dictate the scene and perspective, usually by clicking and dragging on the image itself. Techniques for navigating scenes vary from round to round but usually take the form of thumbnails or “hotspot” links in the rounds themselves.
A scene can be created by stitching together any type of photo as long as they are taken from the same perspective, but using a standard size lens means the user will have to take upwards of 40 photos to accurately cover an angle of 360 x 180 degrees. To combat this pro, use a variety of wide-angle lenses to reduce the amount of photos you need to stitch together. These can vary from a standard wide angle lens to an 8mm fisheye to custom one shot 360 degree lenses.
With its ability to express a space with much greater accuracy than traditional photography virtual tours, it quickly became standard in the high-end commercial and residential real estate industries. From there they quickly spread to entertainment, tourism, education and now most establishments looking to show off their facilities to potential clients invest in a virtual tour as a standard part of their marketing budget.
Virtual tours are used today for a wide variety of different reasons, from commercial to purely entertainment. Now you can explore the new Aston Martin from inside the car, see a moving panorama of London from the London Eye and even explore the red surface of Mars from the comfort of your desk.