Facebook Launches 360-Degree Camera For Capturing Virtual Reality Content

Just a few days back, Facebook invested quite a lot in acquiring Oculus. And this $2 billion acquisition proved to be a giant step towards embracing virtual reality. With such huge investments, this social networking giant has the added responsibility of generating enough VR contents.

In its recent conference, the company announced 17-camera array to capture 360-degree 3D video. The project is an offering by the company to numerous Facebook users across the globe.

According to this social media platform, this particular project, known as ‘Surround 360’ will inevitably attract quite a few talents from every corner of the world. Those nurturing a passion for creating futuristic videos based on reference designs will find this project highly enticing.

So, what does ‘Surround 360’ has in store for users, Facebook, as well as the world. Read the article to find out more on this.

What does ‘Surround 360’ look like?

The camera bears a resemblance to the shape and appearance of a flying saucer, with 14-wide angled cameras around their sides, two at the bottom, along with a fish-eye camera on top of the structure.

With web-based software equipped to take 360-degree shots, the camera is capable of rendering captured shots automatically. The basic video capturing designs are accessible by all. Therefore, there are high possibilities for engineers and manufacturers to come up with more powerful versions of this equipment.

By using quite a few off-the-shelf components while designing it, Facebook is offering the equipment at a price of $30,000. Facebook is also working hard towards developing software that stitches all these cameras for a perfect view of Virtual Reality.

What’s new for Facebook?

With ‘Surround 360’, the company is not only taking a significant step towards embracing Virtual Reality but a major step towards transforming its identity. The platform is slowly making the shift from a social networking platform to a robust ecosystem, capable of controlling lives.

As the platform is venturing out into live streaming, videos are clearly of paramount importance to Facebook. In simple terms, the platform is making a strategic move towards entering the big league, with Samsung and Google for some quality company.

Facebook is currently banking on virtual reality and videos to achieve a competitive edge over its competitors. The following equipment will also strengthen the platform technologically.

Before the inception of ‘Surround 360’, there was Lytro and Jaunt targeted towards combining software and hardware tools for creating VR contents. However, Facebook didn’t find them to be satisfying enough, which led them towards developing ‘Surround 360.’

With the emergence and development of these tools, one thing is for sure. Professionals will never come across a dearth of options while filming VR contents. And Facebook might just turn out to be the frontrunner, in this case.