Your Name:
Christophe Bouthe

What is the subject of the tour?
Monaco

How Many people worked on this tour?
1-5

What photographic Equipment did you use?
Aerial photos with Canon 450D and ground photos with Canon 5D mkII. Tokina 10/17mm

What Software did you find most useful?
PTGui – FPP

After scaling Monaco’s steep terraced steps, glossy escalators and shining marble corridors tunnelling thru the rocks to a collection of free public lifts running up and down the hillside ( not to mention crossing the 3D road system encircling its soaring high rises.

), you might be excused for thinking you are within a life-size MC Escher illustration of an illusionary maze. French is the official language, though many street signs, especially in the old Monaco Ville quarter, are in French and Mongasque, and youngsters of all 107 nationalities that form Monaco’s population are required to observe the language at college.

Neither is Monaco part of the ECU , but due to its close ties with France it takes part in the ECU customs territory, and there are no border rituals crossing from and to France. Monaco’s manicured streets presided over by palaces and its lush fountained parks are eminently safe due to a fertile police presence backed up by plain-clothed patrollers and omnipresent CCTV cameras.

Monaco is most known for its glamorous Monte Carlo casino, Formula One vehicles roaring thru the streets during its glamorous Grand Prix, and the stimulating lives of its glamorous Royal Family, the Grimaldis.

It looks a little empty at the moment – I`m sure soon they will have random wales and sharks in there which will give a sense of scale that’s not there yet.

Another cool feature is that you can go back in time with a scroller – I went back to 1960 in Jurien Bay in Australia, and it was just a few shacks.

One great feature it seems it that 360cities is on by default – meaning our virtual tours are seem by all.

To us its technology is nothing spectacular but at the same time it’s something that actually works – and that’s all that matters.

I just hope my wife never (ever) tries to reverse a car using and aerial view.

Using 4 separate cameras, the monitor displays an image of the vehicle from above. This helps the driver to visually confirm the vehicle’s relation to the lines around the parking space. With this, the driver can position the vehicle for parallel parking or park the car in a smart way with ease.

The system has been designed to be easy-to-see, easy-to-use, and easy-to-understand.

• Easy-to-understand
  • The birds-eye view makes it easy for the driver to position the vehicle for parallel parking. The front/rear view enables the driver to simultaneously confirm the front or rear of the vehicle. (right image)
  • Information of the sonars, equipped on the vehicle corners for camera assistance, are shown on the display in an easy-to-understand way.
• Easy-to-use
  • By displaying the rear view and front-side view simultaneously, the driver can easily confirm the two most worrisome areas; the rear and front assist side of the vehicle. (right image)
• Easy-to-see
  • The super-wide angle/high resolution camera creates a clear image after conversion to show the virtual image (described below)

Most of us will never realize this unfortunately, either lack of time, money, or the fact that buying a remote helicopter for a business seems just wrong! The guilt!

Anyway – here is a company that are doing it just right! And there is even a video of them doing it.

1st Prize -

A commercial license from KRpano – one the best performing flash panorama player. Example here. You can find more information on KRPano here and download a trial.

PLUS 12 Months Hosting from Flash360 and Eleven2 – with 150MB Space and 5 GIG Bandwidth and features unlimited practically everything.

2nd & 3rd Prize:

12 Months Hosting from Flash360 and Eleven2 – with 150MB Space and 5 GIG Bandwidth and features unlimited practically everything.
What do you have to do to get these prizes?? Use the comments section of this post to link your funniest/crazyest/strangest panorama! If you don’t have one – then make one and post the link!

Thats it! Simple eh!

The competition will run until there are 15 entries – so you have 1 in 15 chance of winning!

Winners will be picked by Klaus – the clever bod behind KRpano. Points for individuality, composition and downright silliness!

Good Luck and get clicking…

Panoramas can by presented in Quicktime, Java, Flash or whatever you choose.

If this great preview of the new 360cities interactive panoramas is anything to go by then we are looking at a very user friendly experience. The use of Googlemaps flash API compliments the tour greatly. Maps embedded within a tour rather than visa versa will give the panoramas the credit they deserve. It uses the new kid on the Flash Pano block , KRPano. Which seems to be the best performing FlashVR player yet – certainly in performance anyway and the interactive elements certainly seem to be at least on a par to Flashpanoramas.