Bar Harbor Project Center Trail View Hiking: Interactive Panoramas
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Bar Harbor Project Center Trail View Hiking: Interactive Panoramas An Interdisciplinary Qualifying Project Submitted to the Faculty of Worcester Polytechnic Institute in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Science Student Authors: Evan Muzilla Geoffrey Garsson Jingyu Xie Elizabeth Roberts Xizhao Zhang Project Advisors: Professor Frederick Bianchi Professor Derren Rosbach Project Sponsor: Dr. Abraham Miller-Rushing, Acadia National Park July 31, 2020 1 Abstract The National Park Service (NPS) has, in recent years, worked to transition many of its great offerings to be both digital and in-person. To help with this, Acadia National Park teamed up with WPI to create the Trail View Hiking Team in 2012 whose goal was to take panoramic photographs of all the trails in the park. Previous Trail View Hiking Teams photographed most trails in Acadia National Park but hadn't created virtual tours or a website to house the photos. The 2020 Trail View Hiking Team set out with the goal of making the virtual tours accessible to the public on a website by making 92 virtual tours and an informative website. This was done to help to increase Acadia National Park's digital offerings and interest in the trails. 2 Authorship Evan Muzilla: Abstract, Executive Summary, Introduction, 2.4 Previous Trail View Projects, Methodology Introduction, 3.2.2.2 Creating Trail Descriptions, 3.3.1 First Survey of Project, 4.3 Survey Geoffrey Garsson: 2.3.2 Visitors to the Park, 2.5 Cyber Tourism, 3.1.3 Using the Software, 4.1 Pano2VR Jingyu Xie: 2.1 National Parks, 2.2 Acadia National Park, 3.2 Objective 2 Intro, 3.2.2 Creating the Website, 3.3.2 Exit Survey, 4.2.2 Maps, 5 Recommendation Intro, 5.1 Website Design, 5.2.1 Interactive Maps Elizabeth Roberts: Abstract, Introduction, 2.3 Stakeholders, 3.1 Objective 1 Intro, 3.1.1 Quality Control of Images, 3.1.2 Software Selection, 3.2.1 Setting Up a Server, 3.2.2 Creating the Website, 4.2 Website Intro, 4.2.1 Quality Control, 5.3 More Trails and Trail Photos, 5.4 Survey, Conclusion Zhang Xizhao: 2.6 Virtual Tour Viewers, 4.1 Pano2VR, 5.2.2 Maps on Virtual Tour, Conclusion 3 Table of Contents Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................ 7 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 10 2. Background ............................................................................................................................... 12 2.1 National Parks ..................................................................................................................... 12 2.2 Acadia National Park .......................................................................................................... 13 2.3 Stakeholders ........................................................................................................................ 13 2.3.1 Friends of Acadia National Park .................................................................................. 13 2.3.2 Visitors to the Park ....................................................................................................... 15 2.4 Previous Trail View Projects............................................................................................... 16 2.4.1 The 2013 Trail View Hiking Team .............................................................................. 16 2.4.3 The 2014 Trail View Hiking Team .............................................................................. 17 2.4.4 The 2015 Trail View Hiking Team .............................................................................. 18 2.4.5 The 2016 Trail View Hiking Team .............................................................................. 20 2.5 Cyber Tourism..................................................................................................................... 21 2.5.1 Definition ...................................................................................................................... 21 2.5.2 Panoramic Picture Application ..................................................................................... 21 2.5.3 Virtual Tours at other National Parks ........................................................................... 22 2.6 Virtual Tour Viewers .......................................................................................................... 24 2.6.1 Definition ...................................................................................................................... 24 2.6.2 Google Street View and Pano2VR ............................................................................... 24 3. Methodology ............................................................................................................................. 26 3.1 Objective 1 .......................................................................................................................... 26 3.1.1 Quality Control of Images ............................................................................................ 27 3.1.2 Software Selection ........................................................................................................ 30 3.1.3 Using the Software ....................................................................................................... 31 3.2 Objective 2 .......................................................................................................................... 33 3.2.1 Setting Up a Server ....................................................................................................... 33 3.2.2 Creating the Website .................................................................................................... 33 3.3 Objective 3 .......................................................................................................................... 37 3.3.1 First Survey of Project .................................................................................................. 37 3.3.2 Exit Survey ................................................................................................................... 38 4. Results ....................................................................................................................................... 39 4.1 Pano2VR ............................................................................................................................. 39 4.2 Website ................................................................................................................................ 42 4.2.1 Quality Control ............................................................................................................. 44 4.2.2 Maps ............................................................................................................................. 45 4.3 Survey.................................................................................................................................. 47 5. Recommendations ..................................................................................................................... 50 5.1 Website Design ................................................................................................................... 50 4 5.2 Maps .................................................................................................................................... 51 5.2.1 Interactive Maps ........................................................................................................... 51 5.2.2 Maps on Virtual Tours .................................................................................................. 52 5.3 More Trails and Trail Photos .............................................................................................. 52 5.4 Survey.................................................................................................................................. 53 6. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 54 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 55 Appendix 1: ................................................................................................................................... 60 Appendix 2: ................................................................................................................................... 63 Appendix 3: ................................................................................................................................... 65 Appendix 4 .................................................................................................................................... 66 5 Table of Figures and Tables Figure 1: Panoramic Photo...............................................................................................................8 Figure 2: Website Homepage...........................................................................................................8 Figure 3: 2013 Team Camera ........................................................................................................17 Figure 4: 2013 Team Panoramic Photo .........................................................................................17 Figure 5: 2014 Team Camera ........................................................................................................18