Years ago, when I was working in advertising, we used Apple’s Quicktime Virtual Reality (QTVR) technology to create 360° panoramas of the interiors of private aircraft. Creating these virtual tours required special equipment and special photo stitching software. It was expensive and time consuming.
Maybe that’s why what’s come to pass as a “virtual tour” in real estate today is just the Ken Burns effect applied to static photos.
Round.me is a new company that’s out to change that. Using just panoramic photos taken with your smartphone, the Round.me website lets you create portals in your panoramas to lead viewers from one room to another. It’s not a true QTVR, and apps like Microsoft’s Photosynth and Google’s Photosphere create a more immersive environment, perhaps. But for a quick, simple way to virtually walk a customer through a home, Round.me seems to be off to a pretty good start.
Here’s a quick sample of our listing at 20 Bowden Lane in St. Augustine, FL. It’s not very polished, but it was a quick means of testing out the app. Let me know what you think in the comments.
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