Panorama completion for street views

This paper considers panorama images used for street views. Their viewing angle of 360° causes pixels at the top and bottom to appear stretched and warped. Although current image completion algorithms work well, they cannot be directly used in the presence of such distortions found in panoramas of street views. We thus propose a novel approach to complete such 360° panoramas using optimization-based projection to deal with distortions. Experimental results show that our approach is efficient and provides an improvement over standard image completion algorithms

Im2Pano3D: Extrapolating 360 Structure and Semantics Beyond the Field of View

We present Im2Pano3D, a convolutional neural network that generates a dense prediction of 3D structure and a probability distribution of semantic labels for a full 360 panoramic view of an indoor scene when given only a partial observation (<= 50%) in the form of an RGB-D image. To make this possible, Im2Pano3D leverages strong contextual priors learned from large-scale synthetic and real-world indoor scenes. To ease the prediction of 3D structure, we propose to parameterize 3D surfaces with their plane equations and train the model to predict these parameters directly. To provide meaningful training supervision, we use multiple loss functions that consider both pixel level accuracy and global context consistency. Experiments demon- strate that Im2Pano3D is able to predict the semantics and 3D structure of the unobserved scene with more than 56% pixel accuracy and less than 0.52m average distance error, which is significantly better than alternative approaches.Comment: Video summary: https://youtu.be/Au3GmktK-S

'Spectacles within doors': panoramas of London in the 1790s

Edinburgh University Press allows authors to retain the right to post the definitive version of the contribution, as published by EUP, in the Institutional Repository or in a disciplinary repository one year following publication in print. This article was originally published in ROMANTICISM [VOL 14, ISSUE 2, (2008)] and is available at

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL IMAGE OF HRADČANY AND PRAGUE CASTLE

Tento příspěvek se zabývá urbanistickým vývojem oblasti Hradčan, a to v&nbsp;rámci jeho postavení v&nbsp;hlavním městě, ale především v&nbsp;rámci oblasti samotné. Velký důraz je kladen na historický vývoj, neboť je jím značně ovlivněn současný stav. Pražský hrad vnímaný jako historický i stavební celek je svojí složitostí a rozlohou jedinečný, v&nbsp;žádné z&nbsp;okolních zemí nenalezneme obdobný příklad. Hrad, jako významná součást Hradčan, byl a je i v&nbsp;současné době sídlem panovníka, respektive dnes prezidenta České republiky. Vývoj českých dějin ovlivňoval podobu Hradu (střídání panovnických rodů, růst i pokles významu Prahy, potažmo Českých zemí ve&nbsp;středoevropském prostoru a další). Pozoruhodné je také spojení světské a církevní moci na jednom místě. Zároveň je zde možné nalézt doklady rozvoje v&nbsp;oblasti kultury, technických vymožeností, architektonického a inženýrského umění, a to v&nbsp;průběhu deseti století. Na základě archivních průzkumů a studia odborné literatury je čtenář seznámen s&nbsp;postupnou změnou při utváření současného půdorysu města a Hradu. Je poukázáno na souvislost mezi morfologickými předpoklady a polohou nejprve slovanského hradiště, později kamenného hradu. Na hradní prostor navázalo osídlení v&nbsp;podhradí, z&nbsp;kterého se ve 14. století stalo poddanské město Hradčany. Je probíráno střídání uměleckých slohů v&nbsp;průběhu staletí a s&nbsp;tím související změna struktury a měřítka zástavby, ale především panoramatu Hradčan se siluetou Hradu. V&nbsp;závěru je také zhodnocen potenciál území Hradčan a možnost modernizačních zásahů.This contribution deals with the urban development of the Hradčany area, within its position in the capital city, but especially within the area itself. Great emphasis is placed on historical development, as it significantly affects the current situation. Prague Castle, perceived as a historical and architectural complex, is unique in its complexity and size, we will not find a similar example in any of the surrounding countries. Prague Castle, as an important part of Hradčany, was and still is the seat of the monarch, or today the president of the Czech Republic. The development of Czech history influenced the appearance of the Castle (alternation of royal families, growth and decline in the importance of Prague, ie the Czech kingdom in Central Europe). The combination of secular and ecclesiastical power in one place is also remarkable. At the same time, it is possible to find evidence of development in the field of culture, technical conveniences, architectural and engineering arts, over the course of ten centuries. Based on archival research and the study of references, the reader is acquainted with the gradual change in the formation of the current plan of the city and the Castle. The connection between morphological assumptions and the location of first a Slavic fort, later a stone castle, is pointed out. The castle area was followed by a settlement in the sub-castle, which in the 14th century became a serf town of Hradčany. The alternation of artistic styles over the centuries and the related change in the structure and scale of buildings, but especially the panorama of Hradčany with the silhouette of the Castle, is discussed. In the end, the potential of the Hradčany area and the possibility of modernization interventions are also evaluated

Visual communication in urban planning and urban design

This report documents the current status of visual communication in urban design and planning. Visual communication is examined through discussion of standalone and network media, specifically concentrating on visualisation on the World Wide Web(WWW).Firstly, we examine the use of Solid and Geometric Modelling for visualising urban planning and urban design. This report documents and compares examples of the use of Virtual Reality Modelling Language (VRML) and proprietary WWW based Virtual Reality modelling software. Examples include the modelling of Bath and Glasgow using both VRML 1.0 and 2.0. A review is carried out on the use of Virtual Worldsand their role in visualising urban form within multi-user environments. The use of Virtual Worlds is developed into a case study of the possibilities and limitations of Virtual Internet Design Arenas (ViDAs), an initiative undertaken at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London. The use of Virtual Worlds and their development towards ViDAs is seen as one of the most important developments in visual communication for urban planning and urban design since the development plan.Secondly, photorealistic media in the process of communicating plans is examined.The process of creating photorealistic media is documented, examples of the Virtual Streetscape and Wired Whitehall Virtual Urban Interface System are provided. The conclusion is drawn that although the use of photo-realistic media on the WWW provides a way to visually communicate planning information, its use is limited. The merging of photorealistic media and solid geometric modelling is reviewed in the creation of Augmented Reality. Augmented Reality is seen to provide an important step forward in the ability to quickly and easily visualise urban planning and urban design information.Thirdly, the role of visual communication of planning data through GIS is examined interms of desktop, three dimensional and Internet based GIS systems. The evolution to Internet GIS is seen as a critical component in the development of virtual cities which will allow urban planners and urban designers to visualise and model the complexity of the built environment in networked virtual reality.Finally a viewpoint is put forward of the Virtual City, linking Internet GIS with photorealistic multi-user Virtual Worlds. At present there are constraints on how far virtual cities can be developed, but a view is provided on how these networked virtual worlds are developing to aid visual communication in urban planning and urban design

Trail View

As the world continues to utilize the new technologies available, so too does the National Park Service (NPS.) WPI Trail View was created to assist the National Park Service connect people to parks by documenting the hiking trails at Acadia National Park. Trail View creates virtual tours of the trails and houses them on a website that can be accessed through the Acadia National Park website. The website has been expanded to include educational information such as maps, flora, fauna, and a photo gallery of each trail in the park. Trail View offers a way for people who canÂ’t visit the trails to still experience them. The project is meant to raise interest in the National Parks (specifically Acadia) and educate people on the issues important to the NPS