Tactus 360
Posts: 1245
Location: Tynset, Norway
Registered: 2 Sep 2010
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What do people call our images?
Posted: 5 Nov 2009 at 13:07 GMT
updated: 2 Sep 2010 at 20:27 GMT
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I am just working on the meta data for my website, but in devising a list of keywords, I am not sure what we actually call 360x180 degree images.
Are they 360x180, immersion panoramas, panoramas, plain 360 images? You understand the problem I think . . .
Advice, as always, is gratefully read!
Jon
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Doug Aurand
Posts: 3282
Location: Albuquerque, NM, United States
Registered: 2 Jan 2008
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Re: What do people call our images?
Posted: 5 Nov 2009 at 15:13 GMT
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Jon
Most of the general public in the USA calls more than one of our images a "virtual tour"
Four of the biggest producers of virtual tours for hotels use "virtual tours" or "360° virtual tours"; PhotoWebUSA.com, ICEPortal.com, VFMLeonardo.com and VRXStudios.com
If the target visitor to your site is an average person, that phrase tends to work best if they're looking for that kind of product.
Good luck
Doug Aurand
Albuquerque, NM
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Mark Schuster
Posts: 1321
Location: Welwyn Garden City, United Kingdom
Registered: 25 Jan 2006
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Re: What do people call our images?
Posted: 5 Nov 2009 at 19:54 GMT
updated: 5 Nov 2009 at 20:10 GMT
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Doug,
I am a keen panorama photographer but have never made a virtual tour. I stick to individual, self contained panoramas. So having kicked VT out (at least to my own satisfaction) I can't think of anything to replace it except VR, a term popularized by Apple and its very successful, but now mostly phased out, QTVR (Quick Time Virtual Reality). Frankly, much as I love doing what we do I never liked the term VR. What about Fully Immersive? Sounds like underwater photography and that won't do at all. 360 degree panography describes a cylinder to me, so that's out! 360x180 degrees? Better but too much like trigonometry, a certain put off. But it is the most accurate description. What about spherical? Same thing isn't it? Spherical Panorama or SP? How does that grab you?
And what about we sorry souls who practice the black art? What should we call ourselves? Panographer? Trouble is MSWord doesn't recognize the word and offers pornographer as an alternative. Well at least we won't be mistaken for nerds. Trouble is James Rigg might kick us off the forum: then what?
Jon,
Definitely needed is an EU directive, one that would eventually become law. 
Mark
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Tactus 360
Posts: 1245
Location: Tynset, Norway
Registered: 2 Sep 2010
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Re: What do people call our images?
Posted: 5 Nov 2009 at 20:14 GMT
updated: 2 Sep 2010 at 20:27 GMT
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Mark, you live in England and are therefore subject to ECD/145514552/jahs/para_b.213a.
Surely you knew about that!
Jon
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Terry Montague
Posts: 342
Location: Boise Idaho, United States
Registered: 31 Oct 2008
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Re: What do people call our images?
Posted: 5 Nov 2009 at 23:27 GMT
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One of the best comments I got while on the phone pitching my business to someone was... someone referred to it as "ohh you do those spinning picture thingies". I had a hard time not hanging up the phone right then and there.
-Terry
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v360r
Posts: 72
Location: England, United Kingdom
Registered: 10 Aug 2009
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Re: What do people call our images?
Posted: 6 Nov 2009 at 0:24 GMT
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Terry Montague said: I had a hard time not hanging up the phone right then and there.
Why?
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tturner
Posts: 218
Location: Dallas,TX, United States
Registered: 28 May 2006
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Re: What do people call our images?
Posted: 6 Nov 2009 at 0:53 GMT
updated: 6 Nov 2009 at 0:54 GMT
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The reply I get all of the time is "Oh like you see in Real Estate". Well thats great if that is what you are selling. IMO our craft is misunderstood and undervalued by the customer. I call my product a panoramic image and a linked or grouped set a virtual tour.
TTurner
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Doug Aurand
Posts: 3282
Location: Albuquerque, NM, United States
Registered: 2 Jan 2008
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Re: What do people call our images?
Posted: 6 Nov 2009 at 2:17 GMT
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I call a single image a "virtual image"
More than one are "virtual images"
And more than one in a presentation of some type is a "virtual tour"
A lot depends on who your target audience or customer is; Realtors in the USA are used to "Virtual Tour" and most hotel chains at one time or another called them "Virtual Tours" too. Nome call it just a "Tour" not that there are video and slide shows from some Realtors and Hotels.
Who's your target audience/customer?
Doug Aurand
Albuquerque, NM
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logged out
Posts: 80
Location:
Registered: 19 May 2004
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Re: What do people call our images?
Posted: 6 Nov 2009 at 3:29 GMT
updated: 6 Nov 2009 at 3:30 GMT
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'Spherical Image' or 'Spherical panoramic pictures' are the ones with the least amount of explanation necessary. '360x180' is the other term I use.
Viele Grüße
Jürgen
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Guest
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Re: What do people call our images?
Posted: 6 Nov 2009 at 6:19 GMT
updated: 14 Mar 2011 at 16:13 GMT
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Doug Aurand said: Four of the biggest producers of virtual tours; PhotoWebUSA.com, ICEPortal.com, VFMLeonardo.com and VRXStudios.com
.... and none of them are using quality panorama players 
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KVSSetty
Posts: 83
Location: Bangalore, India
Registered: 10 Jul 2008
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Re: What do people call our images?
Posted: 6 Nov 2009 at 9:03 GMT
updated: 6 Nov 2009 at 9:06 GMT
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In my business card I have put VR Photography and VR tours as my specialized products
Once after showing a demo of multi node tour to a client who is seeing this type of tour for the first time, he asked why are calling your product as "Virtual Reality" though you are showing real building ( real photographs) unlike those 3D render model photos which we usually come across in most real estate ads.
He also said if you use the word "Virtual" in a photographic activity/ photographic product like ours it gives a negative sense that you are going to show something which is not real but virtual, though we are showing the reality in contrast to the computer generated 3D images.
From that day if some one asks me what VR stands for I try to evade the answer, as I felt what he said is true.
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Doug Aurand
Posts: 3282
Location: Albuquerque, NM, United States
Registered: 2 Jan 2008
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Re: What do people call our images?
Posted: 6 Nov 2009 at 14:59 GMT
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Trausti said: Doug Aurand said: Four of the biggest producers of virtual tours; PhotoWebUSA.com, ICEPortal.com, VFMLeonardo.com and VRXStudios.com
.... and none of them are using quality panorama players
But they're selling virtual tours!
I know because I was given the subcontract from one of those companies for 13 hotel still photo and virtual tour shoots that I'm finishing my part of today
I think one of them uses the Flash Panorama Player and another is beginning to use Pano2VR...you don't consider those quality palyers? What's better?
Doug Aurand
Albuquerque, NM
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Doug Aurand
Posts: 3282
Location: Albuquerque, NM, United States
Registered: 2 Jan 2008
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Re: What do people call our images?
Posted: 6 Nov 2009 at 15:17 GMT
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KVSSetty
I agree with you and your client, I usually think of VR or Virtual Reality as something like video games where you can move through the building, usually the dungeon 
I've notice the photographers that started out with QuickTime VR, or output that format, use "VR" and "panoramas"
I started with iPIX and they used "Virtual Tours," "Full 360°x 360° Images" and, later, "Immersive Immages" which a lot of people didn't get so I stopped using it
As an iPIX user I can use their trademarked slogan, "Step Inside the Picture" which conjures a great mental image of what we do
I describe what I do as Virtual Photography and myself as a Virtual Photographer because it makes people understand its "photography" not a computer generated simulation
If Jon wants to see how popular these words and phrases are, just do a phrase search on Google or Yahoo and see how many results are found. I happen to know "virtual tour" is the big winner on the Web with 19+ million entries found.
Good luck
Doug Aurand
Albuquerque, NM
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Hans Nyberg
Posts: 2791
Location: Denmark
Registered: 28 Aug 2005
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Re: What do people call our images?
Posted: 6 Nov 2009 at 15:41 GMT
updated: 6 Nov 2009 at 15:42 GMT
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The expression Virtual Reality started long ago before it was used in 3D games or Helmet/ Glasses Virtual reality or QTVR.
Actually the first to use it was e french author who in 1938 used it to describe a theatre as "la réalite virtuelle"
Virtual Reality is just a description for an experience of being in a place without being there in reality.
The problem is that both the 3D people and the creators of Quicktime Virtual Reality took it up at the same time and unfortunately the first ones got a lot of media on it which now makes people believe that it describes an artificial reality.
A Virtual Tour can be anything using images, panoramas. videos, 3D renderings etc.
What I really hate is when people use one virtual tour to describe a single panorama. That is a very bad definition which only can cause misunderstandings.
I believe that 360 has to be included in you definition of a virtual panorama. A 360 Photo actually will be understood by most people.
You can call it 360 VR Photography or just 360 Photos or 360 Panoramas.
It is how they know it from the large car companies and it is also used a lot for realtour sites.
Hans
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Doug Aurand
Posts: 3282
Location: Albuquerque, NM, United States
Registered: 2 Jan 2008
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Re: What do people call our images?
Posted: 6 Nov 2009 at 16:09 GMT
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Jon
I thought about your question a little more after the my last post and it dawned on me that test searches of various words and phrase are the way to come up with the meta data you're looking for, depending on the purpose of your website.
Like I said, "virtual tour" has 19+ million entries that Google can find, which means a lot of people use that phrase. There are other phrases that are popular to, so I'm sure you'll be using a combination of them in you meta data.
But a lot depends on what the purpose of your site is.
My site, VirtualAlbuquerque.com, is a growing virtual tour of the city with tourist and people considering relocating here as the target audience. Its also serves as a large scale demonstration of how virtual images can be used.
But people don't search for "virtual tours albuquerque"
What has been very successful is changing the web page Titles that appear on the search results for Google, Yahoo, Bing and the other search engines to include "virtual tour"
This greatly improved my page rankings, but not because people were searching for "virtual tour." They were searching for the locations, sites to see, businesses, etc and saw a "A Virtual Tour of the Place"
If you do a search for sandia peak tramway on Google you'll find my page about the Sandia Peak Tramway on the first results page, usually in the top 5 results, but it moves around
My assumption is that people aren't searching for a virtual tour of the Sandia Peak Tramway, but when they find one listed in the results, they click on it. So my rankings have improved because of actual click-thrus rather than people looking for virtual tours.
If you're setting up a traditional website about your business of producing and selling virtual tours, having the right "virtual/panorama" keywords will be important.
But if the focus of the site is the place/location the tour is about, realize that people aren't looking for a virtual tour of the Sandia Peak Tramway, they're looking for the Sandia Peak Tramway
Good luck
Doug Aurand
Albuquerque, NM
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