Feel the image, become the image

I'm writing this article rather excited because of what I have just seen. Panoramic photos recently started to be very popular when the first algorithms and applications for creating such images appeared and digital cameras were given support for this specific kind of shooting. Publishing such shots on Flickr or any other similar site sure is fine but I've just hit a service that serves panoramic photos in a breath-taking way.

The site I'm talking about is called ViewAt and it doesn't appear to be special by any means until you choose a photo to be transformed and viewed in 3D by their service. A flash-based strip will then appear showing you the panoramic photo as a 3D animation.

You can watch the panorama as a whole or click in the picture to start moving around it and see all the details. You can also zoom in or out but the picture is only smooth when it is not moving. Here comes the best part - try switching to full-screen by hitting the button in the lower right corner and watch what happens.

To make the first impression best, I recommend you to view THIS particular image in full-screen with a suitable background music (which is quite important for the resulting effect), exactly as I did when I first hit this website. Watch the sky, the sea... Can you see the beauty?

You can alternatively start with the most rated section which highlights some of the most beautiful panoramas on the site, at least if you trust the opinion of users who rate images on the site. Another interesting option are tours that you can walk through so to speak. A tour consists of multiple panoramas linked with each other so that you can explore a particular place in greater detail.

The site recently introduced pro accounts that you can sign up for to create both public and private panoramas using the site's technology.

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