DUBAI // A new website promises to offer people a completely different view of one of the most famous cities in the world.
Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai, announced on his personal Twitter and Instagram accounts that www.dubai360.com - a project set to showcase full 360 degrees virtual tours of the emirate - is to be launched this year.
It will enable visitors to explore Dubai from anywhere in the world using state-of-the-art multimedia.
For now, visitors to the website can experience what it is like to stand on top of the control tower at Dubai International Airport, giving viewers the chance to be at the centre of one of the world’s busiest airports.
It can be viewed from several angles using the site’s interactive functions.
The time-lapse video was shot over a 30-hour period, depicting more than 1,000 planes landing, taking off and taxiing at the airport.
The 12-minute video shows Dubai International Airport runaway activity over a 24-hour period, including 125 different airlines flying to more than 260 destinations with nearly 1,000 aircraft takeoffs and landings.
One of the videos featured on the site is a 24-hour timelapse with every frame warped into a “Little Planet” projection.
The “Little Planet” makes exactly one rotation over the 24 hours of real time.
Terminal 3 at the airport acts as an hour hand on a 24-hour clock, with midnight at the top, and midday at the bottom, so you can tell exactly what time every single frame was taken.
The video was shot using four synchronised full-frame Canon 1Dx equipped with ultra-wide angle lenses shooting 88,000 photographs and then stitched using panoramic video-rendering software into the 12-minute video.
The website gives viewers a hint of what is to come through previews of various wide-angle and panoramic photos of Dubai’s iconic landmarks and attractions.
nalwasmi@thenational.ae
