I stumbled upon (literally. I used the application "StumbleUpon" to find this) a very interesting video recently. It advertises what a company called "yellowBird" uses: 360 degree, panoramic video. Basically, it looks like a pretty basic youtube video of a snowboarder at first, but when you click it and actually load the video, it becomes something much more. It is a 360 (count em, three hundred and sixty) degree video recording where you can literally click and drag all around the perspective of the camera.
The video starts off with the camera-man simply standing at the top of the mountain for a few seconds to, I presume, get the viewer familiar with the click and drag mechanism. Then, it cuts to daytime where a bunch of snowboarders immediately come into the picture. You can click and drag and keep track of one snowboarder if you'd like, or move the perspective to see all the other snowboarders doing their tricks and antics, or you can even just face forward and admire the mountains in the far background. This type of video really is quite revolutionary, and it makes viewing the ride down a mountain very fun by creating an interactive way to watch the video!
The official yellowBird website is a very simple site where it basically has some little information pieces on it. It looks like yellowBird is a company that will come and film events using their 360 degree technology. They don't elaborate much on how the video camera(s) work, but with my handy-dandy google gadget I was able to break their silence and figure out that the company uses a 6-lens camera that is much like what the Google Street-view cars are equipped with.
I think that this technology is a really interesting idea. Basically, any computer that has Adobe flash can play the videos and watch from whichever angle they choose. I can see it being extremely useful at sporting events or anything that is extremely mobile. The snowboarding video is a great example of it being used.
The official yellowBird website is at: http://www.yellowbirdsdonthavewingsbuttheyflytomakeyouexperiencea3dreality.com/
Quite a long URL.
I think the company is doing some interesting stuff with the technology. I'm interested to see this sort of thing used more widespread in the future at large-scale events and become more accessible to the public. The website has a cool looking feature that notifies you of yellowBird's LIVE demos, which I can only assume would be a 6-lens camera set up at some sort of event where people can live stream and view it, which would be incredibly cool.
At the moment it doesn't seem like there are any other companies that are offering this sort of service, but I imagine in the near future more will pop up and maybe even a consumer product that allows people to make these videos on their own. Now that would be something!
It's interesting. I like the idea of it. Going to public events would be much easier. No long bathroom lines, no over priced water and not having to sweat in the Arizona heat. Sign me up!
ReplyDeleteI just watched one of the videos posted, that's one of the coolest things I've ever seen. If I could have, I would have used that when I went skydiving because I will probably never actually go again. It is definitely a new way to view videos though.
ReplyDeletei also really like this idea. its new fresh, something no one's ever come up with before. three hundred and sixty degree camera's can also, in my opinion be used, for many other things that could help us.
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