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Dayton, Ohio, Welcomes Google Business View

The program allows potential customers to take an interactive virtual tour inside participating local businesses.

(TNS) -- Dayton-area businesses will soon welcome customers through their doors via computer or mobile device. On Wednesday, the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce launched its Google Business View program, which allows potential customers to take an interactive virtual tour inside participating local businesses.

Drew Hilker of Ithaca, N.Y.-based Places Mobile Inc., a Google Maps-certified photographer, was scheduled to shoot at 17 area businesses Wednesday and today to create 360-degree walk-through tours of their facilities. He will return in several weeks to photograph another dozen locations for the program.

The Business View technology is a “great marketing tool” for area companies and organizations, said Holly Allen, the chamber’s marketing director. “This is giving customers a look at the facility before they choose to use you as a business,” she said.

Using a tripod-mounted digital camera with an ultra wide-angle fisheye lens, Hilker took photos Wednesday for a virtual tour of Think Patented’s 75,000-square-foot production facility in Miamisburg.

“It allows us to promote our services and demonstrate what we have underneath this roof, and show it to people in a virtual way,” said Dan Cornelius, Think Patented’s sales director.

Think Patented’s tour will include about 25 “view points,” which provide 360-degree panoramic views from tour stops selected by the business. The interactive view point is created by digitally stitching together 12 overlapping photos into one image, Hilker said.

Personal identifiers such as people’s faces and license plates are blurred in the images.

Hilker also is using a quadcopter-mounted camera to create 360-degree aerial views above such locations as downtown Dayton, Austin Landing and Siebenthaler’s Garden Center in Beavercreek.

Allen said the cost for the photo shoot starts at $360, plus $199 annually for Google to maintain the tour web address. Chamber members receive a 12 percent discount and also will appear in an online directory on the chamber’s website.

Participating businesses will be provided with a link to their tours, which can be embedded on their websites and social media pages. The tours also will be added to their Google profiles, visible to anyone who searches for the business on Google.

©2015 the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.