Teen Business Idea: 3D Virtual Tours

Background

We want to do more camping this summer than we have in the past. I'm not into the glamping thing, but I've learned that I'm picky about my camping. Part of this is because my parents did such a fantastic job finding awesome campgrounds when I was a kid. Part is because I've gotten soft.

I prefer to camp spontaneously on a Friday, and that's REALLY hard to do in Utah. As a result you'll often get the dregs or nothing at all when it comes to campsites. So I usually try to plan in advance, and when I plan, I over-think everything.

 So while planning an upcoming outing I was looking at campground sites and wondering which site would have the best grass, fewest rocks, play areas for the kids, etc. The picture snapshots of the sites just didn't cut the mustard for me and I was wishing I could virtually fly through the campground. I'm not complaining, really, just being super-picky. Even though we have Google Earth, and campground maps, and even pictures of individual sites I was still wishing for more information.

The Idea

I'm sure there are plenty of places where people would like to get a better look virtually before they visit physically. This happened with the real-estate market with virtual walkthroughs and 360 degree views in MLS. For outdoor venues it would be nice to have the same type of option to navigate through a campground, amphitheater, theme park, etc. from any perspective.

It would be a nearly trivial matter to fly around the venue using a quad-copter with a mounted camera. At the very least you could take still images and create a step-by-step option like Google street view. With some clever mix of visual odometry and image-capture you could make a live 3D fly-through.

I'm certain that the technology already exists, and I'm sure someone out there is already offering services. But you'd have to sell the whole package: record, create and host the data. Maybe it could be done simply enough to be integrated into their existing websites. I'd do it if I got free camping for the weekend wherever I went.

Progress

06/12/2015 - Existing Businesses:

http://hdtowns.com/brazil/rio-de-janeiro/ -  Aerial 3D from a single point.

http://aerialxpressions.com/  - They use a point to point system and a 360 degree aerial view at each point. That is good enough and a reasonable compromise between movement and data storage.

https://www.pixilink.com/70965?opentab=3dtour - They use the 3D model with mapped image color, but they also use a point to point w/ 360 degree view approach. Mostly restricted to homes. There's more business there. I think it's pretty aggressive for the application. An aerial view would be a little easier I think.