How Does Ford 360 Camera Work

How does the 360 Camera piece of work

Ever wonder how a 360 camera works? This article will explain what the dissimilar components of a 360 camera do and how they interact. The outset matter that needs to happen is that the lens needs to capture everything in its view, which ways it has to rotate around all iii axes.

Next, the paradigm from each respective axis needs to be stitched together so yous can see everything at once.

This process goes past several names: "spherical" photography or panoramic imaging, or stitching. Finally, software must convert those images into an immersive video format like the equirectangular video for YouTube 360 videos. To larn more than about what happens backside the scenes when y'all take a photograph with your new 360 camera, read on…

The lens design of the Insta360 One is based around this glass dome. Visible on the forepart is the camera'south F2.viii discontinuity, which limits its low-calorie-free performance.

Four lenses are positioned around the outside of the dome, each facing in a unlike direction—image source: insta360.com. Click to overstate.

The glass dome is a spherical convex lens. A standard camera lens has the same focal distance in every direction. For example, if you lot look at your iPhone's rear-facing camera, the image will be sharp anywhere you point information technology.

This ensures that photos are non distorted: directly lines, like the horizon or the edge of a edifice, will stay directly no matter where yous are. However, it also ways that everything between the photographic camera and the horizon is black when looking through your iPhone's lens.

The Ascent Of VR

The popularity of 360 photographic camera photography really took off when VR became a hot topic. Google idea it would be a great idea to create an online platform called Street View, where anyone with a 360 camera could contribute panoramic photos of the world'due south virtually famous places from different angles.

360 media is not the same as VR. Dissimilar VR, 360 photos and videos are apartment. They practice not have a spatial component, which is what makes VR and then immersive. Every bit a issue, 360 media cannot interact like virtual reality (VR) media can.

For an instance of creating an interactive 360-degree video, check out this tutorial on making a marble maze for YouTube 360 videos.

The panoramic view of a scene is a sphere surrounding the photographic camera. The center of this sphere is called the Field Of View (FOV).

Every bit you can see, VR requires bodily 3D space to office correctly. Cutting out the FOV from to a higher place and below creates an illusion of depth past placing objects at different depths within your field of vision.

By rotating the unabridged scene around its center, y'all can convey movement within a 3D space. It'due south this engineering science that enables VR to be.

Therefore, to create VR using 360 photos and video, positional tracking is required. Positional tracking requires additional sensors, which are not necessary for 360 media

How do They work

Here's the basic idea of all 360 cameras: Multiple lenses are pointing in different directions. Past manually rotating these lenses, you tin capture everything inside its field of view.

#1 Rotation

First, there is rotation. As I explained above, this means that you must rotate the entire photographic camera to go everything in its frame. At this indicate, the camera is like to a panorama stitcher.

And then far, no stitching has taken place.

Next, each video feed needs to exist stitched together into an immersive 360 sphere.

This is unremarkably done by creating a separate output file for each lens using special software. Nearly of these tools are incredibly complex, but I found the open-source Kolor Eyes elementary enough for beginners.

Equally you can see, this step is very different from stitching spherical panoramas. Instead of creating a flat landscape out of multiple images, each lens makes its 3D sphere (note: some cameras like the Ricoh Theta S expect like they're creating 3D spheres, merely they're merely performing project using complex software).

Virtual Reality headsets use lenses with the aforementioned characteristics as camera lenses. This is to ensure that images are non distorted. For more information on VR lens design, click here.

#3 Viewing

Finally, for this 360 media to be adequately seen, information technology needs to be viewed through a VR headset or a traditional computer screen (e.g., Google Cardboard).

360 media is not the same as VR media; because of this, you cannot simply upload your 360 videos to YouTube and lookout man them using Google Cardboard. Instead, you need to use special software like Kolor Eyes to convert your 360 videos into VR media.

Final Thoughts

360 photography is still very new, but information technology tin create engaging experiences that anyone with a VR headset can relish. However, people demand to capture both top-down and lesser-upwards panoramas using a single device for this engineering to take off.

What are the benefits of using a 360 camera instead of a VR headset?

Considering VR headsets encompass your optics, you lose awareness of your surround. Every bit a event, it is non very well suited for social settings and can lead to motion sickness after prolonged utilise. A 360 camera, on the other hand, allows yous to share experiences with friends and family.

What is the deviation between VR, 360 Video, and VR Video?

As I explained in #2, 360 video refers to a spherical video captured by a unmarried camera with multiple lenses. VR is an immersive virtual reality feel that uses 3D media (e.thousand., photos or videos). VR video refers to any video that is viewed using a VR headset.

What do you recommend for beginners?

If you have the money, I would recommend buying a Samsung Gear 360. It is unproblematic to use and captures both peak-down and bottom-up media with a single device. Withal, if you lot're on a budget, I recommend using a Ricoh Theta S or Kodak SP360. These cameras are cheaper but require you to use multiple devices to capture both top-down and bottom-upwardly media (e.g., two Ricoh Theta'south).

What about the Insta360?

It is an upcoming VR camera that looks amazing. Notwithstanding, there aren't many reviews yet, so I can't vouch for its quality.

Aren't VR images and videos distorted?

It depends on how they're created. With 360 media, we only need to worry about the distortion of each lens (due east.one thousand., each lens renders the image to expect like it's direct ahead). But with VR and VR video, nosotros demand to worry about the distortion of the entire video (e.g., ensuring that in that location is no radial baloney ). This is why sometimes things announced warped in your VR headset.