Lincoln is a more rounded place than most people think.
It is awash with art, music, culture, commerce, interesting people, interesting places, ambience and beauty. Lincoln has much to offer; it isn't a boring city, and Christopher Kingsley would like to show that to the world.
Kingsley is the CEO of a Lincoln-based company called Roundus. The sole goal of Roundus is to use image technology to show people everywhere the kind of well-rounded, diverse, interesting community Lincoln is.
"Roundus is a virtual representation of the entire city of Lincoln," Kingsley said. "We provide resources to deal with the community."
The resources that Roundus provides are quite unique. Roundus uses imaging technology to create virtual, 3-D representations of Lincoln businesses, landmarks, cultural centers, parks and attractions, the entire list of which can be viewed on the company's Web site, roundus.com.
"Everyone is really frustrated by flat photos," Kingsley said. "People need to see how vast and complex (Lincoln) is. Roundus shows lots of details, lots of work. We can show all that in 3-D."
Roundus works by using an extremely high-resolution digital SLR camera with a fisheye lens to take still photographs at various angles. The pictures are then manually brought together on a computer to create a spherical, 3-D representation of the location.
"It takes about seven images to make a 3-D image," Kingsley said. "We used to have to piece together hundreds of flat images, but we've since upgraded."
Roundus is a unique company. There are other organizations that shoot 3-D images, but no one shoots their own images or has the same purpose as Roundus.
"It's quite an interesting piece of technology they have," said Tom White, marketing manager at the Sheldon Museum of Art, one of the many Lincoln attractions that has been represented on roundus.com.
"I think it's really interesting. It's one more way to get people to know about us. They can show places in ways that make people want to go there."
Roundus is also unique due to the fact that they offer their service free of charge to all of the Lincoln businesses.
"We don't charge them," Kingsley said. "We do it to get the word out. We give Lincoln businesses an opportunity to compete with bigger brands. A lot of people need to see the kind of really interesting stuff that Lincoln offers."
Roundus is funded by a number of contributors, including Union Bank, Valentino's and Landscapes Unlimited. They also charge to do private work for golf courses and resorts. These visual representations are not available on roundus.com, however.
"This way, a few big businesses are helping out smaller local ones," Kingsley said.
Kingsley's inspiration behind the idea to virtually represent the entire city of Lincoln is an unorthodox one, to say the least.
"I was inspired by the virtual worlds in video games," Kingsley said. "The 3-D worlds in games like Myst were really interesting. Also, things like Google Earth. In the next 10 years, people will start to realize the implications and benefits of virtual representations of the world."
From that inspiration came Roundus, and the company has been around for a short while.
"We started out on a couch in an apartment with a laptop a year and a half ago," Kingsley said. "Now we work out of an office at 1416 O St., above Duffy's Tavern."
Duffy's is one of the many local businesses represented on roundus.com.
Roundus is well on its way to virtually documenting the entire city of Lincoln. Roundus.com already has 3-D tours of 179 Lincoln restaurants, banks, schools, shops, parks, venues, events, bars, clubs, sanctuaries, government buildings, galleries, natural locations and other various representations, but its work will not end with Lincoln.
"We've already started shooting in Omaha," Kingsley said. "We hope to keep expanding in that direction, as well as to some smaller cities all around the Midwest.
"People will be able to look at menus, bars and tables in the virtual world. People will be able to find the table they want and reserve it using our virtual world. The virtual world will aid the real one."
Not a bad outlook for a business that started on a couch in an apartment.
caseywelsch@dailynebraskan.com
is a member of the 
