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While virtual reality technology is developing at a rapid speed with more interactive feature and controls being added, “quality and immersive-rich content” still remain the deciding factor. Facebook, an earlier player in virtual reality, recently unveiled its new Surround 360 Cameras with 6 DoF (Depth of Field) technology in a push to bring quality content.
This time, it’s another competitor and tech titan, Google, competing in this race. Following the announcement from Facebook, Google soon took the opportunity without any delay to introduce us to its new “next-generation” Jump VR Cameras designed and aimed to produce quality 360 degrees VR content.
YI HALO – The Next Generation Jump Camera
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAtdv94yzp4
This new technology has been developed in partnership with a Chinese company, Yi Technologies, and is being named as Yi Halo. The Halo is basically a VR rig that houses a total of 17 4k Yi Action Cameras, using the Sony IMX377 Sensor. One of these 17 cameras is referred as the “Up” Camera which is facing the sky placed in the center of the rig and capture content above the viewer. The entire rig assembly weighs less than eight pounds.
Image credit: Yi Technologies
All of these 17 cameras are then synchronized to “work as one” that activates all the cameras at the same time, thereby eliminating any roller shutter distortion that occurs as a result of different time framing between cameras. Moreover, a built-in time-lapse feature helps you to easily perform long-time captures.
Smartphone Compatibility and Seamless Video Stitching
The entire Halo setup has got an onboard touchscreen display which can control all the camera’s functions. Moreover, it also comes with its own ad-hoc WiFi which allows users to connect their smartphones and control the cameras through an app. Using this smartphone app, users can remotely control and preview functions that includes monitoring and setting up of any firmware updates available and then simultaneously distributing it to all the 17 cameras in the rig.
Image credit: Google VR
The additional advantage for Halo is that it will be using Google’s cloud stitching technology to produce the 3D 360 output. While the existing third-party stitching methods are very time-consuming and expensive, Google’s JUMP Assembler will make use of massive server farms which can perform automatic stitching and deliver “seamless, artifact-free stitches” to content creators in just a few hours.
To promote its Jump VR Cameras, Google has also announced its Jump Start initiative, wherein qualified creators will get free units to experiment with their 360 projects. However, the company has set the commercial pricing of Yi Halo at $16,999.
A Bright Future for VR Porn
Several VR porn studio creators have been trying to come up with more 360 and 4K immersive content, raising the intimacy bar for its users to next level. However, till now, making 360 content is not only costly but involves complexities of video stitching software besides other things.
With the new Yi Halo Camera Rig, I believe things to get a lot simpler for content creators and this will allow studios to come up with more 360 high-resolution 4K content, thereby getting us more immersive virtual reality porn content.
How exactly does the Google Jump camera accomplish 6 DOF video?
There is now word currently regarding implementing 6 DoF with the Google Jump Yi Halo….
Aha, another big competitor. The future of virtual porn sure is bright! 😀