3D Video Technology

A dutch company named yellowBird, founded by Marc Groothelm and Rafaël Redczus, have developed a camera similar to that which is being used by Google Streeview. However, the primary difference between the two is that the yellowBird camera captures “totally interactive 3D” video, allowing users the ability to essentially have a full 360° view.

The camera uses six divided lenses in order to capture almost every possible viewing direction, has a surround sound microphone system, and outputs video with a progressive resolution of 3500 x 1750 pixels at 25 frames per second (almost twice of the number of pixels compared to HD). Enough details, take a look at the videos and decide for yourself if such a technology will ever make it mainstream. Here is something to think about: do people really want to view videos from various perspectives or should filmmakers have control over it, will this change how movies are filmed, and will this ever make it into the consumer market.

The Videos

Reporter Dan Simmons from the BBC news program ‘Click’ briefly explains and shows what the yellowBird camera is capable of.

In this video the  yellowBird camera has been attached upside down to a camera crane in order to test the usability with the yellowBird technology.

More Information
A 360 degree ‘real’ net experience
Yellowbird Facebook Fan Page

Immersive Media

Unlike yellowBird, Immersive Media’s spherical video operates with GPS and accurately records the location of every video frame. This information is used to plot the route taken in the recording, as well as the heading and tilt, which can then be used to integrate into online mapping services such as Google and Bing Maps. Interestingly, they have also created an ArcGIS extension that shows interactive video that is specific to the GPS coordinates.