360 rumors

Z Cam is the latest company to join Google's recently announced VR180 program .  Z Cam also showed their VR180 camera called 3D180. Z Cam Founder and Chairman Jason Zhang had this to say: "Z CAM is very well positioned in the VR180 camera market. Our solution's precise synchronization coupled with excellent calibration of the footage delivers amazing immersive experience to viewers. I am very excited that the VR180 era has finally come and we are very committed to entering this market." Z Cam CEO Kinson Loo added, "We are glad to be part of the program and expand our cooperation with Google. VR180 will open up a lot of interesting content opportunities and Z CAM's excellent image quality and ease of use will accelerate market growth. Seeing is believing!" No other details were available such as price or specifications.

At Vidcon 2017, Google announced VR180 videos and cameras, which are 180-degree 3D videos and cameras that can capture the world from your point of view. VR180 videos are 180-degree 3D videos, similar to 3D 360 videos but only showing a forward-facing view.  While that may seem like significantly smaller view than 3D 360 videos, heatmaps show that most viewers view videos only looking at the forward view. Here is a playlist of sample VR180 videos (to see them in 3D, you'll need to view them with a Google Cardboard or similar viewer): WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE FROM STANDARD 360 VIDEOS? VR180 appears to be a separate format from the standard equirectangular 360 videos.  If you watch the video above without cardboard, you cannot look around the video the way you can with a hemispherical 360 video (such as from Entapano ).  Instead, the perspective is fixed until you click on the cardboard icon, which enables gyro viewing.  I am supposing it uses a special tag in its 360 met...

At Google I/O 2017, Google announced that YouTube apps for TVs will now allow you to watch 360 videos and look around using your remote control, making it possible to view 360 videos with your friends. Here's a video preview: With 360 video on the @YouTube app, you'll feel like you're the middle of the action from your couch, on the biggest screen you own. #io17 pic.twitter.com/Y3LmQaKD54 — Google (@Google) May 17, 2017 I tried this with Google Chromecast 2 and with the YouTube app on my Amazon Fire, but only saw the equirectangular version.  I'll keep testing and trying it out on my other equipment. In any case, for 360 video creators, this is awesome news because it expands the audience for 360 videos.  Hopefully, this also leads to an increased interest in 360 cameras, especially among those who don't already have one.

At NAB Show, Yi Technology launched the Halo, a 360 camera capable of shooting at 3D 360 video at 8K.  Check out the sample 360 video! Yi made several announcements at NAB Show 2017, but the two most significant were the announcement of the Yi 360 VR, a 5.7K 360 camera, and the Yi Halo, a Google Jump rig.  We've talked about the Yi 360 VR  and showed samples here .  In this post, we'll talk about the Yi Halo. Last year, at the 2016 Google IO conference, Google announced that Yi Technology was creating a version of the Google Jump rig.  Everyone in the industry assumed that Yi's Google Jump rig would be a lower-cost version of the first commercial Google Jump rig, the GoPro Odyssey.  Instead, the Yi Halo offers additional features for the same price as the Odyssey. Here are the key specifications, highlighting differences from the GoPro Odyssey: - video resolution: 8192 x 8192 @ 30fps or 5760 x 5760 @ 60 fps. - sixteen Yi 4K cameras plus one up-cam...

Google announced that there will be 20 new cameras in 2017 that will be certified for compatibility with Google Street View. Google announced a new Street View certification program, and also announced that there would be 20 cameras "released over the coming months" in 2017 that would be certified under the program. There are four different types of Street View certifications: 1. Mobile ready - can upload to Street View directly from their mobile app without needing a desktop. 2. Auto ready - can be used to take Street View photos from a car "with the highest accuracy." 3. VR ready - these cameras take not only photos but also "geometry" and can generate connected photos. 4. Workflow ready - tools (with or without cameras) that can publish to Street View. Among the interesting companies mentioned are: - Giroptic : mobile ready.  This is interesting because the iO does not meet the minimum resolution for GSV.  I don't know if this means the Giroptic 360...

Tiltbrush, Google's VR painting app for the HTC Vive , has been updated to allow you to create 360-degree videos of your creations. With version 8 of Tiltbrush, you can now make 360 videos of your light paintings, and even overlay it with greenscreen video to create 360 mixed reality videos. Here is a sample video: There are a few VR apps that allow you to create in-game videos but Tiltbrush is one of the first, if not the first, to enable the user to do this as a 360 video.  Using a 360 video to capture footage of VR games and apps gives the viewer an immersive view of the game, and in the case of VR, provides a perspective that is one step closer to the experience of playing the VR game. RELATED POSTS Sliver.TV is like Twitch but for VR HTC Vive will enable spectator mode for mixed reality livestreams How to create a mixed reality video without a capture card HTC Vive review

​ As reported by Mike Cane , the Daydream-ready ZTE Axon 7 is now available for preorder in the US from Amazon , Best Buy and B&H Photo .  Check out Mike's post here .  The price is $399.99 (64GB; unlocked), and will ship around July 27. The specs are pretty impressive: Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor 20mp rear camera with optical image stabilization and wide aperture f/1.8 lens 8mp front camera 4k video capture 5.5-inch AMOLED display with QHD resolution (2560x1440; 538ppi) Gorilla Glass 4 memory expandable with micro SD 3250 mAh battery Size: 5.97" x 2.95" x 0.31".  Weight: 6.17 oz. It also features a fingerprint reader below the rear camera, which allows you to unlock the phone with one hand. The specs appear very similar to those of the Samsung Galaxy S7 ($799), and even the same processor in US versions of the S7.  Some questions arise: 1.  What about ZTE's Daydream VR headset ?  How much is it?  Will headsets be cross-compatible, or o...

Sammobile reported that Indian import records show that there's a possible new version of the Samsung Gear VR, with a new product code SM-R323 (whereas the Innovator Edition is SM-R321 and the current Consumer Edition is SM-R322). What can we expect from the next Samsung Gear VR?  Samsung is one of the partners for Google Daydream, Google's new mobile VR platform.  Daydream is scheduled for release in Fall 2016.  Daydream headsets look a lot like the Gear VR and appear to have similar capabilities.  Therefore I believe the next Gear VR will be modified to be compatible with Daydream. I don't think Samsung will abandon the Gear VR platform though, because there are already plenty of users and apps for it.  Rather, Gear VR would likely coexist with Daydream. Thanks to reader David Grass for bringing this to my attention!