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."
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday June 19 2017, @08:31PM (3 children)
I suspect this is where its gonna be at.
The problem legacy TV has is progressive politics repels pretty much everyone making it impossible to produce something not-leftist while nobody non-leftist wants to watch.
The politics of visiting the grand canyon are, so far, tolerable and profitable.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday June 19 2017, @08:43PM
I think I can think of a political angle or two for the grand canyon [wikipedia.org].
Here's a 360 video of the grand canyon btw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOajv_P6UQE [youtube.com]
One related video shows a tornado. Let's slap 360 degree
canyonscameras on the vans of all storm chasers.[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday June 19 2017, @10:01PM
Come, now. Surely you can watch Left Behind and its sequels, Happy Days, Highway to Heaven, and the Lawrence Welk Show. There's plenty of conservative-friendly fare if you're willing to look and not insist that liberal fare not exist at all at the same time.
Or maybe this is a business opportunity: create an all-torture channel, or a comedy channel that does nothing but make fun of minorities (not sure which way your conservatism tends).
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday June 20 2017, @06:34AM
Virtual tour of real estate probably is a market.
Maybe grocery shopping after Amazon bolts all the doors at whole foods. And maybe you can ride along with your groceries when they start flying drones off the roof of all the whole foods stores.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.