VR is a natural fit for 3D as it already uses two lenses (usually) for presenting images to each eye.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1902969015/detu-max-worlds-first-3d-8k-360-vr-camera-with-ai
Category Archives: Virtual Reality 360
Compact 4K 3D VR 180 Stereoscopic camera that also shoots VR 360° announced on Kickstarter #VR #VR180 #VR360 #VR3D #3D #3DTV
Plans to ship in August for $399.
Source: Kandao QooCam – Pocket Sized 4K 3D Stereo and 360° Camera | cinema5D
How to stream 3D movies from your PC to your Gear VR
Source: How to stream 3D movies from your PC to your Gear VR | Android Central
Samsung’s Gear VR is designed to work with Samsung smart phones. However, with the right viewing apps, it can sometimes be used to view VR and 3D videos with non-Samsung smart phones.
At the time I bought a Gear VR headset, it was apparently the only type of “Google Cardboard” Viewer headsets that included a diopter adjustment to correct for near or far sightedness. Basically, going back a year or two, VR viewers were unusable by most people over age 45 due to presbyopia (and the need to wear reading glasses as we get older).
I use the Gear VR to view some VR content using an old Nexus 4 phone and an app that supports either a Bluetooth mouse button for clicking. The Gear VR otherwise only supports clicking with Samsung phones but you can pair a Bluetooth mouse to your smart phone and use the mouse button (or the mouse pointer!)
VR 3D, VR 180 stereoscopic cameras shown at #CES2018
- Kodak Pixpro 180 – a VR 360 camera that unfolds, points both lenses in the same direction and turns into a VR 180 stereoscopic 3D camera!
- Vuze+ VR 360 3D camera
- Stereoscopic VR 180 3D cameras, built on Google’s standard, introduced
- High End – 8 camera VR 360 3D system
- I assume there is also something new from LucidCam as well.
I will do a post at some point on re-formatting conventional 3D video for use in VR Cardboard viewers.
Conventional 3D video typically used side-by-side or top over bottom encoding of 3D content. Top over bottom does not work at all for conventional VR viewing apps, and side-by-side displays a horizontally squished/vertically stretched image perspective. Consequently, neither works with standard VR viewers. Side by side is also sometimes called “half side by side”.
Some apps do correctly recreate a side by side image but do so only in a small portion of the phone’s screen centered in front of the cardboard viewer’s lenses. Unfortunately, this small image cuts the image resolution so low that the image quality suffers tremendously and the original 3D content is nearly useless.
IF Cardboard viewing apps provided reformatting of standard 3D formats into VR 3D formats properly, this would not be a problem. But for now, it is a big problem.
A possible solution, based on my tests, is to take one’s original stereoscopic 3D and recompress an output file as full size, side by side. Upload the full size, side by side video to Youtube.
When played back on the Youtube viewer, these videos display using most of the phone screen, such that image resolution remains very good. Each eye sees an original image in a 960×540 resolution (roughly) which is far better than perhaps half of that seen on conventional side by side Cardboard viewing apps.
More on this another time.
#Ricoh introduces software development kit, APIs for Theta V #VR camera #VR360 #CES2018
Yay! Ricoh announces a software development kit and partner program for third parties to add features to their Theta V camera.
This is exciting – 4-5 years ago, I approached all the camera makers at CES about adding an SDK for their cameras. Panasonic was interested, Sony and Canon did not blow me off, but Nikon was stuck on stupid.
Nikon told me that allowing third parties to add features to their products would ruin the Nikon brand.
I said, “Just like how third party software ruined the Apple iPhone?”
The Nikon staff did actually laugh at that and noted they understood what I was saying but they had to speak the company line and management would never go for something like that. Since then, Nikon has been suffering significant financial challenges – oh well!