First there was the smart phone, then Augmented Reality came along and now with VR and AR becoming more and more popular the need for a 360° cameras and video become clear. We have seen Hollywood films like Star Wars, Warcraft, and others beginning to use 360° videos to use as a marketing tool to show off the impressive things to come.
What is 360° Video?
There are quite a few cameras out there that are doing 360° video and a number of companies have taken advantage of it. Revolution eMedia has began to work with this tech and have found ourselves having a great time with it. You can check out a 360° video we did called “The Ride”, this video takes you back to 1923 and shows you what it’s like to ride through the countryside in a Ford Model-T. If you go to our YouTube page you can find the video and enjoy a ride back in the past.
How does it work?
This tech has become so prevalent in today’s world of technology because of Virtual Reality. VR has upped the bar, after Facebook acquired Oculus, a VR company working on a product called The Rift, it was made clear that VR was gaining momentum. Other companies have popped up with more and more VR headsets, including Google with their Cardboard VR headset that can be used with your phone. With 360° video, if you are watching on a player that allows for 360° video and you use your phone in Google Cardboard, it will allow you to move your head and track the movements of your head. You are actually inside the video and looking around in the environment.
Education
Interactive 360° video and imagery provide a virtual reality environment, easily accessed through the web, mobile devices, desktop browsers and Head Mounted Displays, like or the variety of affordable Google Cardboards. The benefit of 360° imagery and video for virtual reality is that the experience is photo realistic and interactive; two key features that cultivate an effective instructional experience. This technology allows educators to take students on an interactive and engaging virtual fieldtrip right from the classroom.
Virtual Business Tours
Businesses and real estate companies can work with media agencies like Revolution eMedia to create a huge impact on the way potential customers and buyers experience their offerings from afar. Just imagine being able to tour a house you are looking to buy from several states away. You are even able to virtually take a tour of a business and really get to see inside and look at everything before even leaving your living room. There are already a number of businesses and real estate agents out there taking advantage of this great technology.
360° in Film
This video type has become so widely used that films are now using it to help market their movies. Star Wars did a video and released to help market their film Star Wars The Force Awakens, not like it needs the help really. Insidious 3 created a video that was a set up for the movie, it is actually quite creepy and can be scary. Warcraft a film coming out in June of 2016 released a great 360° video that has you flying on the back of an eagle looking over the kingdom.
Discover 360°
There is an app that Discovery has released called Discover VR. In this app it allows you to view different videos they have created including Shard Attack. Shark Attack allows you to be in the ocean surrounded by dozens of hungry sharks. These predators seem like they are an arms reach away and it feels like they could strike at any moment. Along with this there are other videos that are available to view within this incredible app that is available for Android and iPhone.
New York Times
The New York Times are using this technology and created really strong 360° news pieces. One of those 360° news stories is even about the refugee crisis happening in Syria right now. They recently launched a campaign that sent one million Google Cardboards to their newspaper subscribers. These well done articles are helping push and grow this technology in a big way.
There are many great uses for this technology and we have only begun to scratch the surface. Check back here for more news, updates, and videos that we are working on now that will be released soon. So get ready to see what the future is all about!
Leave a Reply