PoliTour
The virtual tour of Politecnico di Torino
PoliTour
The virtual tour of Politecnico di Torino
Overview
PoliTour is the “virtual version” of the tour that is offered by the Incoming Mobility Office to international students enrolling at Politecnico di Torino.
Originally, the tool was developed within the MS thesis work of Filippo Conti under the supervision of Prof. Fabrizio Lamberti and Prof. Marco Mezzalama at the Department of Control and Computer Engineering (DAUIN) in collaboration with the International Affairs Area – Incoming Mobility Office
Goals
The purpose of the tool is to offer international students and other visitors the opportunity to explore key areas of the main campus, like the Main Engineering Library, the Registrar’s Office, the International Affairs Area, the Students’ Canteen in order to let them get acquainted with life and services at Politecnico di Torino before arrival.
From a technical point of view, though this activity it was possibile to investigate technologies that available today for creating virtual tours, which can be exploited in the future to create similar experiences for other locations, either at Politecnico di Torino or out of it.
Results
Three different types of visits are available, leveraging different interaction technologies. Users are allowed to start with one of them, then switch to another directly from within the tour.
PoliTour 2D
The 2D version of the tour consists in collection of photos which are linked into a path and can be explored using navigational arrows. Details of the environment can be appreciated thanks to high-quality images used.
PoliTour 360
This version uses panoramic 360° photos connected through hotspots (points of interest). Users can freely explore the whole environment though an extremely flexible navigation interface.
PoliTour VR
The VR version derives from the 360° version and lets the users fully immerse in a virtual environment made up of panoramic images and videos, making them feel to be right there.
