Streaming Location-Based Panorama Videos into Augmented Virtual Environment

Location-based panorama systems such as Google Street View let users explore places around the world through panoramic bubbles or strips. The panorama image is easy to be deployed, but it can only provide the static views of capturing time and lacks developing process. In this paper, we present an augmented virtual environment system that combines multiple location-based panorama videos with the structural context of scenes. The raw panorama images are from several independent video cameras. A frame synchronization method of video streams is proposed to provide the temporal consistency in the panorama stitching. Our novel method augments the virtual environment through mixing it with the panorama videos. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to fuse panorama videos with virtual environments. The system is demonstrated in a campus-wide area, and it enhances users´ walk-through experiences in the experiment environment.