Google has published code and details for VR180, a video/photo format intended for simpler devices to capture or display content for virtual reality:
For Google's VR180 to become successful, manufacturers and developers have to be onboard, creating devices and churning out videos and apps that use the format. That's why the tech giant is now opening it up to hardware-makers and devs by publishing the remaining details on how they can start engaging with the format and offer VR180 products. When Google-owned platform YouTube introduced VR180 last year, it introduced the format as a way for creators to shoot immersive photos and videos for VR headsets that still have a normal perspective when viewed on a phone or PC.
From Google's blog:
Today, we're publishing the remaining details about creating VR180 videos on github and photos on the Google Developer website, so any developer or manufacturer can start engaging with VR180.
For VR180 video, we simply extended the Spherical Video Metadata V2 standard. Spherical V2 supports the mesh-based projection needed to allow consumer cameras to output raw fisheye footage. We then created the Camera Motion Metadata Track so that you're able to stabilize the video according to the camera motion after video capture. This results in a more comfortable VR experience for viewers. The photos that are generated by the cameras are written in the existing VR Photo Format pioneered by Cardboard Camera.
The Lenovo Mirage VR180 camera is set to launch on May 4 for $300. The Yi Horizon VR180 is set to launch sometime in the summer for $400.
Good news for the stereoscopic 3D imaging enthusiasts out there.
Previously: Google Bisects VR
Related: Virtual Reality Audiences Stare Straight Ahead 75% of the Time
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YouTube's revealed the secret to making an engaging virtual reality video: put the best parts right in front of the audience so they don't have to move their heads.
Google's video vault offers that advice on the basis of heat maps it's created based on analysis of where VR viewers point their heads while wearing VR goggles. There's just such a heat map at the top of this story (or here for m.reg readers) and a bigger one here.
The many heat maps YouTube has made lead it to suggest that VR video creators "Focus on what's in front of you: The defining feature of a 360-degree video is that it allows you to freely look around in any direction, but surprisingly, people spent 75% of their time within the front 90 degrees of a video. So don't forget to spend significant time on what's in front of the viewer."
YouTube also advises that "for many of the most popular VR videos, people viewed more of the full 360-degree space with almost 20% of views actually being behind them." Which sounds to El Reg like VR viewers are either staring straight ahead, or looking over their shoulders with very little time being devoted to sideways glances.
A video channel wants people to treat VR like video. Hmmm. Perhaps the answer to their question is in the question: people should be considered "participants" instead of an "audience."
Google is launching VR180, a format which ignores the world behind the camera:
Google is launching a new, more limited cinematic VR format that it hopes will be almost as accessible as regular YouTube videos. It's called VR180, a collaboration between YouTube and Google's Daydream VR division. And it'll be produced with a new line of cameras from Yi, Lenovo, and LG, as well as other partners who meet VR180 certification standards.
As the name suggests, VR180 videos don't stretch all the way around a viewer in VR. They're supposed to be immersive if you're facing forward, but you can't turn and glance behind you. Outside VR, they'll appear as traditional flat videos, but you can watch them in 3D virtual reality through the YouTube app with a Google Cardboard, Daydream, or PlayStation VR headset.
Creators can shoot the videos using any camera with a VR180 certification. Google's Daydream team is working with the three companies above, and the first of their VR180 products are supposed to launch this winter, at roughly the same price as a point-and-shoot camera. So far, the only image we've seen is the one above, a line drawing of Lenovo's design. It appears to have two wide-angle lenses that can shoot stereoscopic video, and it's a far cry from the expensive alien orbs that we often see in VR film shoots.
Highly Related: Virtual Reality Audiences Stare Straight Ahead 75% of the Time
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 10 2018, @10:11PM (2 children)
2 weeks from now Google closes VR180
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday April 10 2018, @10:16PM (1 child)
Their reputation for shutting down services doesn't apply here. This is just an extension of existing stuff on the software side, which will be used with hardware that isn't made by Google.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 11 2018, @01:59AM
so a few days then?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 11 2018, @05:01AM
Google headsets watch you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 11 2018, @11:16AM (1 child)
For more depth on this subject, see here [soylentnews.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 11 2018, @12:13PM