Other attributes
Also know as immersive photography, VR photography, and spherical photography. 360 photography is a method of photography used to capture a full panoramic photo from all angles. This method of photography was once only reserved for very large companies and researchers, but a number of inexpensive consumer grade cameras came to the market with the rising popularity of virtual reality technology.
There are a number of projections that a 360 photo can be viewed in:
Example of dual spherical projection
Example of equirectangular projection
Example of stereographic projection (also known as "tiny planet")
These projections can be interacted with from a number of devices and players, from web browsers to full VR headsets.
History
"Vue circulaire des montagnes qu‘on decouvre du sommet du Glacier de Buet", from Horace-Benedict de Saussure, Voyage dans les Alpes, précédés d'un essai sur l'histoire naturelle des environs de Geneve. Neuchatel, 1779–96, pl. 8.
The device of the panorama existed in painting, particularly in murals, as early as 20 A.D., in those found in Pompeii, as a means of generating an immersive "panoptic" experience of a vista.
Cartographic experiments during the Enlightenment era preceded European panorama painting and contributed to a formative impulse toward panoramic vision and depiction.
This novel perspective was quickly conveyed to America by Benjamin Franklin who was present for the first manned balloon flight by the Montgolfier brothers in 1783, and by the American-born physician, John Jeffries who had joined French aeronaut Jean Pierre Blanchard on flights over England and the first aerial crossing of the English Channel in 1785.
As popular spectacle
In the mid-19th century, panoramic paintings and models became a very popular way to represent landscapes, topographic views and historical events. Audiences of Europe in this period were thrilled by the aspect of illusion, immersed in a winding 360-degree panorama and given the impression of standing in a new environment. The panorama was a 360-degree visual medium patented under the title Apparatus for Exhibiting Pictures by the artist Robert Barker in 1787. The earliest that the word "panorama" appeared in print was on June 11, 1791, in the British newspaper The Morning Chronicle, referring to this visual spectacle
Example of an interactive equirectangular photo inside the browser
