A Web imaging company, 3cim Inc., announced the launch of a new virtual tour creation software called PanoramaBuilder 7.0 that allows real estate agents, consumers and photographers to create panoramas with a hand-held digital camera and no tripod.
The software “stitches” multiple photographs together into a panorama.
“With PB7, we’ve taken the complexity of shooting, building and publishing panorama Virtual Tours out of the process,” said Steve Sorich, chief operating officer at 3cim, in a statement. “It used to be that in order to photograph panoramas, it required a tripod and panoramic head. In addition, it also required learning complicated and time-consuming photography techniques and panorama ‘stitching’ programs, which often produced low quality results.
“PB7 is the first stitching program which allows anyone to shoot panoramas hand-held without a tripod and produces high quality results without ‘fish-eye’ distortion,” according to the announcement.
PB7 can stitch images together even if the individual images are shot out of order. Before PB7, most stitching programs required that the individual images be shot in a very precise way as well as sequentially in order for the images to stitch correctly.
The program can stitch multiple rows of images horizontally and vertically, which makes it possible to shoot multi-story buildings and other tall subjects.
PB7 includes an online administration program called OnlinePanoramaBuilder that allows the user to manage and organize published panoramas, group them into virtual tours, customize the virtual tour display template, and add audio narration and music, among other features.
The company launched in 2000 and also offers an online self-service slide-show builder called SlideTour.
