Friday, December 13, 2013

Southwestern: A Virtual Tour


In the rapidly advancing technological age, virtual environments are becoming increasingly prevalent.  Video games and virtual reality have put the users in the middle of the action to immerse them in a completely simulated setting.  Is this just a phase?  Or, will virtual reality be a major component of spatial learning and understanding for future generations?  Before, Southwestern University’s virtual tour is comprised of photos and brief snippets of information.  By using and working with Google, the user can navigate the campus similarly to Google Streetview.  Now, it is a virtual environment, made up of 360-degree panorama points where the user can look up, down, and all around the SU campus from their computer or smartphone.  This innovative use of the Google platform to work with a virtual tour of campus has not been done in this capacity before and would test the limits of this tool and of virtual environments in general.

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