360 rumors

I had the chance to try the Immersive Robotics (IMR) wireless adapter which enables you to use the HTC Vive wirelessly. IMR's Mach 2K system consists of two primary components: a transceiver attached to the PC and a transceiver with external battery pack, attached to the headset. On the headset side, the transceiver is worn on a belt which will also carry an external battery pack.  The headset is connected to the transceiver the same way as it would be connected to the Vive link box, with inputs for HDMI, USB, and power.  It's plug and play and doesn't require installing any drivers.  I asked if it was compatible with the Rift as well and they said they haven't tested it, although they think it would probably be. IMR claims that their system can support 4k per eye and can be used by 16 people in the same space.  The key to IMR's system is compression -- they compress up to 95% of the data.  Besides the key issue of latency, IMR's method raises a question about w...

IdealoEye presented three 360 cameras and two VR headsets at CES 2017. IDEALOEYE C2 The C2 is Idealoeye's entry-level 360 camera with two lenses, with a new design that looks strikingly different from any other 360 camera (in fact, I initially thought it was just a non-360 camera), and a mode dial on the side.  It can record fully spherical 360 video at 4096 x 2048 @ 30fps , slightly higher than most other consumer 360 cameras (which are usually 3840 x 1920).  The C2 can also livestream in 360 at 4k via RTMP, with 30mbps bitrate. One unusual feature is that it is equipped with a fan for dissipating heat .  I believe the unusual design actually functions as a radiator that further assists heat management.  Idealoeye claims that it can operate for 1.5 hours. The C2 also has two (?) 3.5mm stereo microphone input jacks.  Having even one mic input jack is a rare feature in consumer 360 cameras.  I don't know if it mixes the audio from two microphones or wh...

I saw several 360 cameras for consumers at CES 2017, but the one that I am most excited about is the Kodak Orbit360 4k .  Here's why. In 2016, there were several 360 cameras, but all of them had one or more significant issues.  For example the Ricoh Theta S has great photos, but its video resolution is too low.  The Samsung Gear 360 has great photos and good videos, but is compatible only with high end Samsung phones, and needs an S7 or a desktop to get the full video quality.  The Nikon Keymission 360 is actionproof and stitches videos in-camera, but it's soft at edges, and has connectivity issues.  Kodak PIXPRO's own SP360 4k Dual Pro stands out for its video quality but it too has many usability issues. The new Orbit360 4k (formerly called the 4KVR360 -- thank goodness for the name change!) is a new intermediate-level 360 camera that seems to check all the boxes. The Orbit360 4k has an unusual design.  It uses the same lens as the SP360 4k with a 235...

I got to see the Sphericam Beast and Sphericam 2 , two professional 360 cameras with livestreaming capability.  I got to meet their CEO/Founder Jeffrey Martin and their CRO Gaja Zornada.  They showed a livestream from each camera and they both looked very good from the large LCD screen. According to Jeffrey, they are working on improving the Sphericam 2, and will be launching it in early 2017.   Here is the official Sphericam website .

Last week, I posted about Occipital Bridge, a VR and AR headset for the iPhone .  I got to try it at CES 2017.  Here are my impressions. Mobile VR headsets today are limited to tracking your head movement (rotational tracking).  Desktop VR headsets are able to track your forward, upward, or sideward movement (positional tracking) but they need external devices to track the headset's position. Occipital Bridge is a headset for the iPhone that uses Occipital's Structure depth-sensing camera as an inside-out tracking device, enabling positional tracking with 6 degrees of freedom, without any external devices. Moreover, Occipital Bridge uses the iPhone's camera plus an ultrawide converter and data from the Structure sensor to provide a 3D view of the viewer's surroundings.  This makes it possible to use as an AR device (strictly speaking, a mixed reality device). The Occipital Bridge was available for demo at CES.  Their appointment times filled up quickly but I was...

The Vuze camera is the first affordable 4k 3D 360 camera, and was the camera I was most eagerly anticipating in 2016.  Unfortunately, it was delayed for additional tests . Our correspondent in Germany, Sven Neuhaus, got to see Vuze at Photokina 2016, but they only showed him a sample video.  At CES 2017, I met with Humaneyes' GM for North America, Jim Malcolm, who had been the President for Ricoh Imaging Americas and had helped bring the Ricoh Theta to the US market.  Jim showed me a working camera, and walked me through the entire process from capture to viewing the final video on an HTC Vive.  Here are my impressions of the Vuze. Update: I now have the Vuze.  Here is an unboxing and my first impressions! Here is the Vuze's retail box. HARDWARE First of all, a few things have changed.  Originally, the Vuze's memory was not removable.  That meant that once the memory was filled up (~1 hour capacity), you had to download everything via USB 2.0 before y...

Pimax 8k is the world's first VR headset with 8k resolution .  I got the chance to try it out at CES 2017. Most of the current desktop and mobile VR headsets have screens with limited resolution.  Their individual pixels and the gaps between them are visible, making it look like there is a screen door over them.  The screendoor effect can be distracting or immersion-breaking for some people. Another limitation of current desktop and mobile VR systems is their field of view.  Current VR headsets' field of view are around 90 to 110 degrees.  In actual use, this means that you see the frame of the headset, so it's like you're looking through a window or porthole.  Seeing the frame around your field of vision constantly reminds you that you're looking through a headset and diminishes immersion. Pimax 8k addresses both of these issues with its "8k" resolution.  Actually, its resolution is 4k per eye (3840 x 2160 per eye), which is 6.4 times higher than the ...

A lot of you have asked about Hubblo, a 3D 360 camera with 4k resolution and realtime stitching, which I posted about a month ago .  I got to see Hubblo at CES and I'm glad I made the extra trip to see it! Here's a recap of the Hubblo's specs: - six lenses, 200 degree FOV each - fully spherical field of view in 3D - video resolution: 4k @ 30fps, mp4 format - 4000mAh battery (1 hour), or 12V DC adapter - streaming via RTSP / RTMP When I first found out about Hubblo almost a month ago, I was frankly quite skeptical.  First of all, the design is a little unusual.  Most 3D 360 cameras I've seen have 8 or more lenses.  Second, I had doubts about how well it could stitch 3D video in realtime, or if it could truly stitch in realtime at all. I got to see the Hubblo in person at CES.  I had the chance to try viewing the livestream using a VR headset, and it was indeed livestreaming in 3D 360.  There was a delay of a few seconds, but I still thought it was amazi...

Boxfish 360 is a professional 360 camera rig designed for underwater use. Update : here are the details on the Boxfish 360 ! Boxfish 360 consists of three cameras in a waterproof housing.  Here are the specifications at a glance: - up to 300 meters depth (MSW) - resolution: 2520 video lines. - weight: 6 kg I'm not sure but I think 2520 is the vertical resolution, so the resolution in equirectangular format would be 5040 x 2520, which is higher than 4k. Here is a sample video: The video quality looks impressive, although hopefully the stitching could be improved. For purchase inquiries, please contact Boxfish Research directly.   Here is the official website .  Thank you very much to Jim Jensen  (the very knowledgeable moderator for the Photo Sphere Community on Google) for bringing this to my attention!

One of the most intriguing 360 cameras I saw at CES 2017 was HEX, a new prosumer 360 camera from UK-based studio VISR VR. VISR VR is a UK studio with clients such as Google, Microsoft, and Financial Times.  According to co-founder Lindsay West, they were using cameras from other companies to produce content, but found that the quality fell short of what they needed.  They therefore decided to design their own camera from the ground up. HEX has six lenses, and each sensor has 2k resolution.  Since there are few displays available with higher than 4k resolution, HEX photos and videos are down-rezzed to 4k.  However, the photos and videos have a higher quality than many other cameras that have nominal 4k resolution because HEX's photos and videos are effectively supersampled from 12k. HEX's pricing is not yet fixed but will be under $1,000, and it will be available in Q3 2017.  VISR will be providing samples of photos and videos, which I'll post as soon as I recei...

At CES 2017, Ricoh demonstrated their recently-announced Ricoh R livestreaming camera .  Here are my hands-on impressions. The Ricoh R looked a little larger than the Ricoh Theta S and its grooves gave it a very industrial look, in sharp contrast to the Theta's sleek outline. The other significant difference between the Ricoh R and the Theta is that the Ricoh R has no internal battery and must be powered by an adapter, making it unsuitable for use by most consumers and limiting it primarily to professional or industrial use. The Ricoh R performed pretty much as advertised.  They had a couple of Ricoh R cameras showing a livestream and it was stitched smoothly.   In contrast, the Theta S requires its videos to be stitched on the phone or desktop app. There was a lag of a few seconds from the time of capture to the time it is shown on the screen, although I wasn't sure how much of that lag is due to the Theta's stitching or from YouTube. One thing I found out is that the Ri...

Staro is a 360 camera with seventeen lenses and it has a photo resolution of 136 megapixels (a little more than 16k x 8k), which is the highest resolution 360 photo from an all-in-one camera, edging out the Panono (108 mp) and the Aleta S2 (118 mp) . Here are the key specifications: - 17 lenses and sensors - each sensor is 1/3.2" 8mp BSI (backside illuminated) sensor - fully spherical view - f/2.2 aperture - photo resolution: 136 megapixels - video resolution: 4k @ 30fps Besides the ultra-high resolution, I was also surprised at the Staro's size.  The sphere is only about 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter, smaller than even the Samsung Gear 360 .  Besides the convenience of a small size, it also means that there is a smaller distance between the lenses for less parallax stitching error. Another feature of the Staro is that unlike most 360 cameras, it does not use fisheye lenses.  This has the advantage of having more consistent sharpness across the field of view of each l...

The Kodak Orbit360 4k ( formerly called the 4kVR360 ) is now available for pre-order, and you can get a promo code! UPDATE :  Kodak now stopped taking actual orders, and instead will just take preorders .   If you sign up on their page , they will email you a promo code that will give you a discount. Sorry for not being able to post this morning - I've been crazy busy with all the interesting things I've seen at CES... but this couldn't wait! I've seen the Orbit360 4k and they have a demo unit livestreaming at the Kodak booth.  And it looks pretty darn good! Here are the key specs: dual 20mp sensors one 235-degree lens, and one 155-degree lens f/2.4 aperture on both lenses photo resolution: 7360x3680 with RAW format video resolution: 3840x1920 @ 24fps (desktop stitching) or @15fps (in-camera stitching). As you know, the  SP360 4k has the best video quality among all the cameras I've tested  and one of the Orbit360's lenses is the same as the one in the...