Live data from Hacker News

Jump – Experiences like you're actually there

google.com

141–150 of 199 posts

Re: Jump – Experiences like you're actually there

#141
post #60

Something that's maybe not clear from that page, but was mentioned in the Google IO keynote: this is not just stitching of multiple video streams. Google does some heavy-duty machine learning / computer vision on their servers to extract 3D information from these video streams (they mentioned having depth data). Then they presumably re-generate seamless stereoscopic 360-degree video from this 3D model. That's how the…

Yes. I wrote the code for the http://www.3d-4u.com 3D camera. You definitely can not use simple still image stitching algorithms. Per pixel depth estimation (via dense stereo matching) and subsequent blending must be used. I would say more, but I had to sign a long NDA before I worked on this.

This looks like 180, not 360.

Re: Jump – Experiences like you're actually there

#142
post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't claim this to be a consumer product. As others have said, the cost of this is peanuts compared to professional cameras. I'd bet one of the first killer-apps for VR will be sports: Imagine several of these rigs set up around (and over) a football field, so that spectators can choose to "be" at the right point on the field to observe the game, and have complete freedom to look around the field.

I think you'd be surprised how nice it is to have a team of producers and camera operators doing the work of finding the interesting views for you. People attend live sports for the atmosphere and shared experience, not the view.

Though a court side camera at a basketball game would make an interesting vantage point... People definitely do sit court side for the view.

Re: Jump – Experiences like you're actually there

#145

The interesting aspect here is the iPhone availability for Cardboard and the use of Youtube as the platform for 3D VR. Youtube already had stereoscopic support, but there were not many clients available, content was limited and difficult to create with 3rd party solutions that all cost money. It never took off and couldn't ride the wave of the studio and CE company driven 3D momentum, which quieted down after a while…

I'm looking forward to trying out Cardboard on iOS. Anyone have a recommendation for a good viewer manufacturer? (I'm a bit surprised at how much some of the kits are, given they're made of, er, cardboard).

I am a bit partial as I am one of the founders of this company but here is a shameless plug for our vr viewers... http://www.dodocase.com/collections/virtual-reality

Re: Jump – Experiences like you're actually there

#146

I think LightField camera technology is ultimatly going to win the VR camera wars, it provides much better depth information. If you havn't seen the otoy tech yet it is worth checking out... http://home.otoy.com/otoy-demonstrates-first-ever-light-fiel...

Lightfields don't lose because of how they look, it's the lack of compression and difficulty in capturing them for real scenes that have held them back.

The apartment scene on the linked page was about 40MB compressed, IIRC. True that was a static scene, and admittedly once you start doing 30 FPS (perhaps no need for 90+ FPS that the HMD's require, because head movement can be rendered independantly of animation), you're up to 70GB/minute. Lots, for sure, but not out of the question.

Re: Jump – Experiences like you're actually there

#147
This is a really fun hack that really did make me smile and laugh... but I do wonder what the sensor/processing/display latency is like on hardware/software that wasn't originally designed to do this.

I once played with an early Oculus, it basically amounted to something that wasn't really succeeding at tricking my senses other than giving me a headache and making me want to vomit at the same time.

I'm sure similar things were said about early cinema though.

Re: Jump – Experiences like you're actually there

#148
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Price is a huge inhibitor for a mid-range Canon DSLR, so it'll probably be a huge inhibitor for this system too.

Yeah but compare it to a Red or a Hasselblad and it's utter peanuts.

Oh certainly, I just wanted to make the point that photography is a notoriously expensive hobby to begin with.

Re: Jump – Experiences like you're actually there

#149
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can get the same reaction from playing any other game with an element of surprise on just a normal display.

I differentiate between jump scares/immersion and presence. Imagine playing a hack and slash game. A user is not reacting every time their character is hit. They may have an initial reaction to a surprise attack that catches them off guard, but no more. There is some level of immersion but there is no level of presence. They never feel like they might be in danger and their body does not react as if it is in any dang…

How does something like this compare? I would like to try it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cML814JD09g&feature=youtu.be

(The bit with the spider webs especially registered with me as something that might be a trigger for making your brain go wonky.)

Re: Jump – Experiences like you're actually there

#150
post #53

Wasn't this invented by Disney in the 50s? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle-Vision_360%C2%B0

I was just thinking about how the idea has been around a long time. Even back in the early 2000s I was working on a project that used a camera on a special tripod that would let you take pictures in 360 degrees and stitch them together with some software in post (quicktime I think?). But I think the neat thing is using readily-available GoPro cameras and stitching the video together quickly. That takes a lot of proce…

QuickTimeVR Toolkit. It was painfully slow on my Quadra and the stitching usually had to manually corrected by nudging the images around (didn't help that this was pre-digital cameras and errors in slide registration and scanning compounded) but I thought it was close to magic - even if it was running in MPW ;-)
Post reply on HN