Wikipedia info on Virtual Tours
Virtual walks
Virtual walk videos are documentary motion pictures shot as the camera continuously moves forward through an urban or natural area. The effect is to allow viewers to experience the sights they would see and the sounds they would hear were they actually traveling along a particular route at the same pace as the camera. Virtual walks based on real-world photography typically do not require the use of virtual reality goggles or headsets of the kind used by gamers.
In realistically simulating the experience of moving through space, virtual walks—or virtual runs or bicycle rides—differ from conventional travel videos, which typically consist of a sequence of mostly static camera setups along a particular route or within a given area. The advantage of the conventional travel video is that one or more narrators or on-screen guides can provide insights into the geographical, historical, political, military, cultural, geological, or architectural aspects of the area.
Examples of Virtual Tours appeal to those who want to experience the sights and sounds of particular places in the country or the world, but who may not have the time or the financial or physical resources to actually travel there. They also appeal to treadmill or elliptical trainer users, for whom walking or running while watching these videos enhances the reality of the experience (and, at a minimum, reduce the boredom of the exercise).
Some feature-length narrative motion pictures have made use of the virtual walk technique for dramatic purposes. These include the opening sequences of Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil and Robert Altman’s The Player, the famous tracking shot through the Copacabana in Martin Scorcese’s Goodfellas, Alexander Sokurov’s Russian Ark (which consists of a single 96-minute Steadicam take), and, more recently Alfonso Cuarón’s long tracking shots in Gravity, and almost the entire narrative structure of Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárrito’s Birdman.
