White House Christmas Tree (Photo : Reuters/Larry Downing)
Google is offering a virtual reality (VR) tour of the White House's colorful Christmas decorations, which features a 16-camera rig setup using its Jump standard. This is certainly a cheaper alternative to purchasing a plane ticket to Washington, D.C. to take a guided tour of the president's home during the holiday season. The 360-degree video is featured on the White House's YouTube channel and showcases the search giant's Google Expeditions, an educational program that supplies schools with Google Cardboard VR headsets and smartphones.
This is the company's first-ever VR tour of the White House. The 360-degree video combines images, movies, and narration to provide a virtual reality tour, according to PC Mag.
The tour features the first family's activities during the holiday season. That even includes a short appearance by the Obama family's dog.
The White House holiday tour is easy to watch on a flat screen display, like YouTube's other VR videos. People without a Cardboard VR viewer can click and drag to see the different shots, according to The Verge.
However, the best experience is enjoyed by strapping on a Cardboard headset or other mobile viewer. Some bad news for iPhone fans is that an Android handset is required because YouTube does not support virtual reality on Apple's iOS platform.
The White House holiday tour is not as crisp as other VR videos. That includes the "The Displaced" documentary about three child war refugees, produced by The New York Times and Vrse.
Another big complaint is the slideshow format, which results in 180-degree photos of different rooms in the home of the United States' president. Another option would have been to roll around a VR camera through the White House's authorized areas.
However, the panorama video is almost seamless. That is due to the stitching software of Google's 16-camera VR setup, which amalgamates the footage from all the cameras into one VR video.
Public tours of the White House started with President Thomas Jefferson, and have continued since then except during wartime. The guided tours launched the traditions of yearly receptions on New Year's Day and the Fourth of July.
