Pano painter - sketching in the round

We have been examining a new sketching paradigm that allows direct free-hand creation of immersive graphics. Based on Apple's QuickTime VR Technology it enables one to paint in a cylindrical panoramic space. To increase drawing speed we make extended use of the cylindrical geometry of the panoramic space, particularly the fact that a straight line on screen is a sinusoid on the flattened cylinder. We have added a secondary window to the QuickTime viewer too indicate the view angle and orientation, and various grids to help structure the space. Standard drawing functions such as colour pickers, shaped, straight and curved line drawing tools, flood fills, and cloning tools have all been implemented. In addition to these, brush controls have been added with parameterised opacity, hardness, size and spacing. The software handles a background read-only image plus an overlay (with alpha channel) containing new marks. There is also an undo buffer. To aid with the initial creation of an image, VRML models can be directly imported as wireframes. Many possible extensions of this application are discussed with the aim of opening up the digital panorama as a fully interactive VR experience.