360 video is a format that provides spherical or immersive 360 videos. Using a mobile VR headset such as Google Cardboard, the Samsung Gear VR, or smartphone, you have 3 degrees of freedom (or 3DOF), which tracks the position of your head, but not the full movement of your body as in high-end VR headsets with 6 degrees of freedom (6DOF). It provides a partially immersive experience which can still be powerful and is generally less expensive to create.
360 video requires an omnidirectional camera which can be a consumer version such as the Ricoh Theta, the Insta360 One X, or a professional model such as Google’s Jump camera. The most recent consumer 360 video cameras will automatically stitch the seams, not as well as using post-production software, but serviceable.
Some of the “classic” early immersive experiences of the modern VR revolution were done in 360 videos, including Clouds Over Sidra and The New York Times, The Displaced. The format remains the easiest access point for organizations, retailers, students and faculty, along with the public to begin creating immersive experiences.
Scratch another immersive technology development off the list. After high hopes and promises of a ubiquitous mobile VR platform, Google Daydream is essentially over. The HMD is still available on the Google Store, but you have …
In a blow to VR filmmaking, Google is closing their VR studio, “Spotlight Stories.” The popular immersive film studio shuttered with an announcement in Variety: Google Spotlight Stories is closing its doors after over six years …
Here’s a chance to experience some innovative 360 videos at SXSW if you’re in Austin, Texas. They’re coming from Brett Leonard, director of Lawnmower Man, which remains a classic if terrifying vision of our technology-laden future. …
Read more Lawnmower Man Director Brett Leonard’s 360 Videos at SXSW
Immersive technology projects are showing up everywhere. Even in outer space. A project of Time and the always creative Felix and Paul Studios is putting VR cameras on the space station. The cameras went up last month on board …
Read more VR cameras on the space station for your virtual spacewalk
Happy Holidays from Digital Bodies! A very creative 360° holiday video from Breaking Forth posted on the Samsung VR site. Best viewed with Google Cardboard or any 360° video viewer but you can also view it in …
We’re not at the point of doing a live-stream in VR from another planet (as Elon Musk promises to deliver). But this NASA 360° video of the control room at the Jet Propulsion Lab during the InSight Mars …
Read more NASA 360° Video – the moment of InSight’s Mars Landing
Another black hole in VR? Maybe good things come in pairs. In addition to the release of Eliza McNitt’s incredible SPHERES: Songs of SpaceTime on Oculus Rift, scientists have now created an astrophysical model of Sagittarius A* to …
The latest Google VR film, “The Journey of Gold”, explores the issue of gold mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As you may know, over five million people have died from resource extraction conflicts …
Some things just scream for a virtual experience – or at least a 360° video. And a VR flight in a body-controlled jet engine power suit is one of them. You’ve probably seen one of the …
Read more An amazing VR flight experience in a body controlled jet suit