iPhone app gives virtual, 360-degree views

Charles Armstrong looks deep into his cell phone screen and slowly spins himself around, as if peering through the phone into another place.

In a way, he's doing just that.

Armstrong and his colleagues at Spark Labs in Tampa have developed a cell phone system called "Tour Wrist" that both captures 360-degree panorama photos, and displays them as people move themselves through the image.

For instance, users can dial up an image of the Golden Gate Bridge, or the Coliseum in Rome and look through their phone at panoramic images of the place. As the user points north, so does the image of that place. Turning the phone in any direction automatically shifts the image in that direction, allowing the user to virtually look around as if standing in that place – using the phone's internal compass and motion detector.

"This creates an immersive experience for people to feel like they're really there," said Armstrong, who leads a small product development shop inside the Spark advertising company in South Tampa.

Armstrong first demonstrated the app to the public at the TEDx conference in Tampa this month. It works on the iPhone, iTouch, though versions for other phone are under development.

Tour Wrist joins a growing list of programs jumping into an especially hot area of multi-media – "immersive systems" or augmented reality, that blends photos, video or data about a place. For instance, a map on a phone blends the image of a street scene with overlays of information about restaurants right there. Other services:

• Google Maps. Google's map service displays wrap-around images on the iPhone, though it's not presently tied to where the user points or how they're moving. And just this month Google started adding the interior of some businesses.

• Panoramio. Google also has a system called Panoramio that combines thousands of photos taken by anyone into mosaics that other users can scan through.

• AutoStitch. There is AutoStitch, $2.99, which lets users take a series of photos, software then blends them together like a photo mosaic into a much wider version.

• VideoPanorama. At $1.99, VideoPanorama uses the phone's video feature instead, and allows the user to simply scan across a scene to create a panorama. The software then compiles it into a wide, still image.

• WeCanTakeYouThere. This service uses similar elements to VideoPanorama and is free.

The Tour Wrist app is free to download, use and upload photos.

As for generating revenue, Armstrong says the company has signed up a series of real estate, travel and hotel companies to display images of their properties.

If a user views Jackson Square in New Orleans, for instance, and spots a hotel nearby, the software will offer to call it directly. If that hotel signs up for the service and pays a fee, the connection goes through. There's also a preliminary agreement with General Motors to use Tour Wrist to display car interior images.

The system lets users take their own 360-degree images as well. Users snap a few photos of the surroundings, and the software stitches them together into a panorama for others to see. An optional fish-eye lens attachment creates images that look fully up and down.

The app has been submitted to Apple, and could be active in March if Apple approves.