The Newest Members of the Surround 360 Family
Unbox Editor-In-Chief, Carlo Ople, was at San Jose, California to experience Facebook’s developer conference, Facebook F8, first hand. While there was certainly a lot of learnings to be had about how the world’s social media platform of choice is changing the landscape of the digital game, it was cool to check out all the tech they’re creating to forward their cause as well.
Read: Facebook Spaces Quick Review: Too Complicated, Steep Barriers-to-entry, and High Friction
If you remember awhile back, we reported that Hugo Barra left his cushy job at Xiaomi to join Mark Zuckerberg and lead all his VR efforts. Last year, Facebook also announced their Surround 360; a 360-degree camera that wasn’t made available commercially, but was used as a platform for developers to be able to create more content. This year, it seems they’re really doubling down on their efforts by introducing two new cameras in their Surround 360 family: the X24 and the X6. These new 360-degree cameras promises more immersive content by shooting content with 6-degrees of freedom. Now, what does that mean?
If you haven’t had the chance to view 360 content using VR, traditionally everything is shot and experienced from a fixed point; meaning if you move forward, nothing really changes from your point of view and it’s as if the world moves forward with you. With the content shot using the X24 and X6, the cameras can reconstruct the image you see from different angles; making you feel like you are actually occupying space in the content you see, instead of just being an on-looker. Since the X24 has twenty-four cameras on it compared to the X6’s six, we’re guessing that the latter will provide you with slightly less angles to play around with.
Like the original Surround 360 camera, these won’t be in the market as well. Facebook, however, plans to license the designs of the cameras to their commercial partners.
Related:
Our Sheryl Sandberg Experience at Facebook F8
Facebook Set to Outpace Snapchat with New Camera and AR Announcements?
