# The PanoramIX Authoring Tool

## Version 0.1.4.92, February 26, 1998

Detailed information is available for each of the following topics:

1. Getting Started
2. The Main Window
3. The File Menu
4. The Edit Menu
5. The Options Menu
6. The View Menu
7. The Window Menu
8. The Help Menu

## 1. Getting Started

Before using the PanoramIX Authoring Tool, you must collect a set of digital images representing a scene and/or the objects in a scene. These images may be based on digitized photographs, images from a digital camera, or computer generated images based on a 3d digital model. The images may be flat images such as conventional photographs or they may be cylindrical images obtained from a panoramic camera.

Each panoramic scene must have at least one or more images representing the sides of a scene. These consist of flat or cylindrical images taken

After collecting a set of digital images to represent a scene, you are ready to create a panorama. The best way to get started is to select the Panorama Wizard from the Options Menu. The Panorama Wizard guides you through the steps of setting the camera properties and importing the images representing the scene. Alternatively, you can go directly to the Camera entry in the Options menu to specify properties of the camera used to capture the images. Then you can go to the Import Images entry in the File menu to identify the images comprising this panorama.

After importing the images into a new panorama, you may need to align the images with the AutoStitch function, adjust the image exposure settings with the Balance Exposures dialog, and blend the overlapping images with the Blend option.

After stitching the images together to form a panoramic background, you can enhance the panoramic scene by adding Hot Spots and Animated overlays.

When finished creating a new panorama, you can save the panoramic data and images in a PanoramIX control file and a set of image files. This is described under the File Menu.

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## 2. The Main Window

The main window presents a view of the current state of the panorama. This provides a direct indication of how well the images used to build the panorama fit together based on the current editing parameters. The projected images shown in this window are equivalent to the images that will be seen by end-users using the PanoramIX Browser, the Netscape Navigator plug-in, or a PanoramIX application created with the PanoramIX developer's SDK.

In addition to the normal navigation functions supported by the browser and Netscape Navigator plug-in, the main window also supports the following functions:

### 2.1 Edit Image Selection

Double clicking on any part of the image in the main window selects the corresponding original image. If the Edit Image window is open, the selected image will be shown in the Edit Image window, replacing the image previously shown in the Edit Image window.

### 2.2 Escape Key

Pressing the ESC key while the main window has input focus terminates the Panedit session without saving anything. There are plans to check for changes and ask if the user wants to save the edit list or raw panorama before quitting.

If the Edit Image window is open and has the input focus, pressing the ESC key will close the Edit Image window.

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## 6. The View Menu

The View Menu provides a set of entries for selecting a number of preset viewing angles.

The viewing angles consist of the azimuth, elevation, field of view and roll angles.

The azimuth angle is the angle of rotation about the vertical axis of the panorama. This can go from zero to 360 degrees.

The elevation angle is up/down angle. This ranges from 90 degrees (straight up) to -90 degrees (straight down). An elevation angle of zero represents a view direction perpendicular to the vertical axis of the panorama (straight ahead, or horizontal).

The field of view angle specifies how wide is the range of angles that can be seen in the panoroamic image.

The roll angle specifies how far the viewer is tilted relative to the vertical axis. This applies only in sphere mode. The viewer cannot be tilted unless the panorama is being viewed in sphere mode.

The View Menu provides the following entries:

1. Home

This sets the azimuth, elevation, and roll angles to zero, and sets the field of view to 60 degrees.

2. Level

This sets the elevation angle to zero without changing the azimuth angle or field of view.

3. Right 45

This sets the azimuth to 45 degrees.

4. Right 90

This sets the azimuth to 45 degrees.

5. Right 135

This sets the azimuth to 45 degrees.

6. Reverse

This sets the azimuth to 180 degrees.

7. Left 135

This sets the azimuth to 225 degrees (equivalent to -135 degrees).

8. Left 90

This sets the azimuth to 270 degrees (equivalent to -90 degrees).

9. Left 45

This sets the azimuth to 315 degrees (equivalent to -45 degrees).

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## 8. The Help Menu

The Help Menu provides the following entries:

1. Help Topics

This menu entry opens a help window with an index of topics covered by the panedit help files. This entry requires the presence of the file panedit.hlp.

2. About

This menu entry opens a window with a brief description of some of the panedit features. This is very obsolete and needs to be replaced.

3. Version

This menu entry opens a small message box indicating the version numbers for the authoring tool (panedit.exe) and the dynamically linked PanoramIX kernel (pix32.dll). This needs to be merged with the "About" entry.

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Last modified February 27, 1998.
wluken@watson.ibm.com