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Posts Tagged ‘Spherical’

Biospheres with a spherical camera: the Theta V at Amazon HQ

01 Feb

Introduction

Note – click and drag the 360 images in this article to explore. Enter full-screen by using the button on the bottom right of each image.

It’s not every day that you get to take 360-degree spherical images inside of a collection of enormous spheres. But it wasn’t just any day; it was the start of opening day for the Amazon Spheres, and our former writer and current Amazon Visual Storyteller Jordan Stead invited me along for the ride.

And so, I armed myself with Ricoh’s Theta V, Jordan armed himself with a Canon 5D Mark IV, and we set off into the warm, humid expanse to capture all the images we could. We were allowed in just one hour before the Spheres were to be overrun with events staff, tours and employees looking for an artisanal caffeinated beverage to sip while being gently misted in the face by the building’s environmental control system.*

Full disclosure: DPReview is a wholly-owned but editorially-independent subsidiary of Amazon. We weren’t asked to visit the Spheres, or to write this article, we just thought it would be fun.

Inside the Spheres

This space is primarily geared towards large presentations, and is where the grand opening festivities chiefly took place.

Walking through the entrance to Amazon’s Spheres begins with a blast of humidity followed with a spike in temperature, concluding in several seconds of adjustment to the blindingly bright lights from every direction. It feels like an exercise in teleportation or extraterrestrial abduction (in a good way).

Here, the Theta V makes perfect sense

And the Spheres also lend themselves really well to 360-degree imaging, mainly because of how architecturally distinct they are. I’ve struggled with really understanding the broad appeal of 360 imaging in the past, but here, the Theta V makes perfect sense. Given that it’s such an extraordinary environment, 360 photos and video provide a unique and valuable view of what it’s like to be there.

Despite the Spheres’ immense size, part of what helps in this case is that they’re enclosed; the geometric skeleton gives you a consistent frame of reference and provides visual interest whichever direction you look. I also enjoy how the hard corners and edges of the metal skeleton contrast with the gentler curves of so many leaves and plant stems throughout the space.

The Theta V: What worked

One of the reasons we chose the Theta V for this shoot was its compact size and ease of use. We could mount it on a long monopod to convey a sense that the viewer is ‘floating’ within the surrounding area, and once it was paired to my Android smartphone, remote triggering of the shutter proved reliable.

The Theta V automatically downloaded images to my phone immediately after capture

Through the app, we could also experiment with other exposure modes for a given shot location, including DR Compensation and HDR capture; sometimes these improved things, sometimes they didn’t. But it also helped that we could preview our perspective in real time, to make sure we could be as efficient with our limited time as possible. That the Theta V automatically downloaded images to my phone immediately after capture was icing on the cake.

Lots of power in an impressively small package.

And though functionally and physically the Theta V is very similar to the older Theta S, Ricoh’s shoehorned an all-new processor into the V. Not only does this allow the V to capture good quality spherical 4K video (the S could only do 1080p), but still images are improved as well, despite the fact that the actual sensors and lenses are unchanged.

Robust battery life was a plus, as well. We had the Theta V Wi-Fi connected to my smartphone for most of an hour, captured a couple of dozen stills as well as almost ten minutes of 4K video, and still the app showed full bars for the battery. Not bad.

What needs work

I really like this vantage point, but unfortunately, it required me holding the camera horizontally over the rail, and the Theta V’s auto horizon correction only works in video mode, not stills. Neither our embed code, nor Ricoh’s Theta app for Mac will allow me to adjust it at this time.

For the average user, the Theta V could really benefit from software tweaks more than anything else.

The main reason that we left the Theta connected to my smartphone for most of an hour was because early on, we had difficulty with reconnecting after a disconnect. The app would crash one or two times in a row for no real reason, and then it would work successfully on the third try. Usually. It wasn’t confidence inspiring.

An option for batch conversion would be appreciated

The next issue arose when I downloaded the spherical video files onto my iMac. Ricoh’s Movie Converter App refused to recognize any video files; luckily, the ‘Basic App’ converted the files just fine, albeit one at a time. An option for batch conversion would be appreciated.

Lastly, the Theta falls behind on the video front compared to the likes of the Rylo 360 camera. This isn’t necessarily due solely to image quality (and our informal tests show the Theta produces more pleasing still images), but more due to the impressive software-based stabilization and subject tracking that the Rylo offers. The Theta V does at least offer intelligent horizon correction from its built-in gyros, but shaky footage remains shaky.

What I learned

Quibbles aside, I really enjoyed using the Theta V in the Amazon Spheres. Not only did I come away with some really neat 360 images, but I also learned just how little I know about ‘proper’ 360 video capture.

When I sat down to edit the video, first of all, I was impressed that Adobe Premiere Pro handled the files just fine, and has an option to view the videos in their ‘VR’ form as I’m editing them. But I noticed that, too often, I just didn’t record clips that were long enough. The viewer really needs time to be able to click-and-drag around to explore before you move onto the next clip. Also, I was walking way too fast while recording.

I also find myself wondering, for the first time, what other events and venues would lend themselves well to 360 stills or video capture – maybe all it takes is a little thinking outside the box.


* There are a lot of misters throughout the Spheres to regulate humidity, but in the event that you don’t want to be misted in the face while sipping an artisanal caffeinated beverage, they’re easy to avoid.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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GoPro Fusion makes official debut, captures 5.2K spherical video

29 Sep

GoPro’s pro-grade spherical camera has been in the works for a while now, but today Fusion gets its official debut today. It’s capable of 5.2K/30p and 3K/60p spherical video capture, in addition to 18MP spherical stills. It touts gimbal-like stabilization without a gimbal, and provides a feature GoPro calls OverCapture to create tradition fixed perspective video from 360-degree footage.

It’s not quite as rugged as its Hero siblings, but Fusion is waterproof to 5m/16ft. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity are included and the camera is compatible with the existing GoPro app. It’s up for pre-order now to US, UK, European and Canadian customers for $ 700.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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GoPro unveils Fusion, a 5.2K spherical VR camera

22 Apr

GoPro has unveiled Fusion, a new pro-grade spherical camera capable of capturing regular and VR video at a 5.2K resolution. The camera will be released this fall, but ahead of the launch comes a pilot program that GoPro will introduce this summer. Interested professional content creators can apply to take part in the pilot program, which GoPro says will be used to ‘refine the user experience.’

The company hasn’t revealed many details about Fusion, saying only that it capable of recording 5.2K spherical video at 30fps.Operators will also be able to produce ordinary non-VR videos from spherical videos using GoPro’s OverCapture technology. GoPro’s CEO Nicholas Woodman explains that Fusion can ‘capture every angle simultaneously… as though you had six GoPro cameras fused into one.’

Via: GoPro

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Boxfish 360 Micro Four Thirds camera can record 5K spherical videos

11 Apr

Boxfish Research has announced the launch of its new Boxfish 360, a 5K camera equipped with multiple Panasonic Micro Four Thirds sensors able to capture spherical photos and video. This model is designed for professional use and, according to the company, offers better clarity and colors than similar 360-degree rigs created using multiple action cameras. The camera made its debut at CES 2017.

Boxfish 360 features 185-degree circular fisheye lenses with an F1.8 maximum aperture, an internal battery offering up to 90 minutes of recording per charge and both 1/4-inch and 3/8-inch mounting threads. Though the cameras are secured within a fully waterproof housing, Boxfish Research says the battery and microSD cards (up to six supported) can be quickly accessed without using tools via a hatch.

Videos are recorded using the H.264 codec with a bit rate of 60Mbps, and still images are saved as JPGs and DNGs. Boxfish 360 offers up to a claimed 10 stops of dynamic range and records camera metrics such as water temperature, water depth and camera orientation during recording. Operators are given various elements of control, such as underwater start/stop and manual aperture control. 

Boxfish released the camera for preorder last week and will begin shipping the next batch starting May 15. Interested buyers can pay a 50% balance of the $ 14,990 USD price tag to secure a unit, or buyers can pay outright ahead of the shipment date. A total of ten cameras are offered in the next batch, some of which are already reserved.

Via: Boxfish Research

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Real world test: The Panono is a 108MP spherical camera

24 Jul

‘Uh, what is that thing?’

‘What is that thing?’ That’s the question I was asked pretty much every time I took the Panono out shooting. There is a lot of curiosity surrounding 360/VR content and my week spent fielding questions from curious onlookers as I dipped my toes into a new, more immersive photographic world is proof of that. In fact, only once did someone walk up to me and say “Hey I know what that is, its a 360 VR camera!” And it was a 12 year old child.

Damn know-it-all kids making us all look bad…

Yes, it can be tossed in the air to take a picture. 

So uh, what exactly is it? The Panono is the highest resolution 360-degree still camera currently on the market. A grapefruit-sized ball constructed of tough plastic, the Panono contains 36 separate cameras. Each camera uses a 1/4″ sensor (a bit smaller than the sensor likely found in your smartphone) and when the files are combined, the result is a 108MP 360-degree image that allows one to pan and zoom around the scene. 

Panono started off as a thesis project, but was later successfully funded via crowd-sourcing campaigns (DPreview field-tested an early version in 2013). Designed in Germany and constructed in Poland, everything about the camera is surprisingly frustration-free and the controls are intuitive. I say ‘surprisingly’ only because Panono is such a new company and good UI often takes time to get right. But once paired with a smart device, taking shots, processing  and sharing them is all a breeze. 

For optimal viewing, open the 360 in full screen mode. This image was shot using the HDR-setting, which combines a properly-exposed image with one exposed for highlights. 

The design 

The Panono only has a single button on the top. Holding it down for a second turns the camera on and off. When it’s switched on, the button can also be used to take images without the need for a smart device. However, for the best user experience, you’ll want to use the app to set up and control the Panono remotely from a phone or tablet. 

Around the periphery of the Panono’s one and only physical button is a glowing LED. It lights up when the camera is switched on and blinks whenever a photo is taken. If battery or internal space is getting low, part of the LED ring will illuminate red next to the corresponding symbol. While useful in dim conditions, the LED ring is near impossible to see in bright light.

There is a micro-USB port located at the very bottom of the camera for charging. It doubles as a mounting point for the Panono Adapter (to mount it on a tripod) and the Panono stick (a selfie stick). However when plugged into a computer via Micro-USB, the Panono is not discoverable. 

The app

Pairing with a device simply requires turning the Panono on and connecting to it via Wi-Fi. The password to connect is written directly on the side of the unit. Once connected, open up the app. At the bottom of the screen there are five icons. If you’ve properly paired the unit, green lines will appear above the camera icon (which is the shooting screen), indicating you are connected.

Most of the shooting controls are accessed via the center-most camera icon on the bottom. The app is also used to push images downloaded to your device to the cloud for processing. You can also view your processed 360s. 

Simply tap the green camera button to fire a shot. For more control over the camera’s exposure and color parameters, tap the gear symbol. 

To take images from within the shooting screen simply tap the green camera button bottom center. By default the camera will beep and blink when a photo is fired (the beep can be turned off). For more controls, tap the gear symbol in the lower right. There you can control a number parameters, like dialing in a white balance or specific exposure. I found the auto exposure and white balance modes largely worked fine for the majority of the places I shot. But it’s nice that those additional manual controls exist.

There is also a switch to toggle HDR mode on and off. If you’re mainly photographing static subjects, HDR mode is very useful. You can see an example of it on and off below:

The above image was shot as an HDR file, the one below was not.

The camera has 16GB of internal storage. Once an image is taken it is stored locally within the camera and a low-resolution un-stitched version of the image will appear within the app’s shooting screen for quick viewing. If you’re please with the preview, simple tap “download from camera,” and the files are transmitted to your device, but only temporarily – more on that in a moment.

It’s worth noting that if you are shooting a non-HDR image, there is a 10-sec black out time between when a shot has been fired and when an additional shot can be taken. When shooting an HDR image, that time gap is closer to 30 seconds. When the camera is ready to shoot again, the circle around the camera symbol/trigger button will turn from white to green. 

Once back in the comfort of a proper Wi-Fi connection open the “Task” screen (2nd icon from the right). There you’ll find all your transmitted 360’s. With the tap of a finger you can upload them to the Panono cloud where their servers do all the hard work of stitching and processing – you can simply sit back and make yourself a cocktail. In about 10 minutes, your 360s will appear in your Panono account where you can share them either via a direct link, iframe embed or Facebook/Twitter/Google+. It’s really that easy.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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When Art Attacks! Giant Spherical Sculpture Escapes Museum

21 Apr

[ By Steph in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

Screen Shot 2016-04-20 at 2.43.25 PM

How do you stop a 15-foot-tall, 250-pound ball when it’s rolling down the street, running over cars and treating the city like a giant pinball machine? Employees at the Toledo Museum in Ohio had to figure out the answer to that question really quickly one day last August when a storm swept through the city, dislodging the giant sculpture from its perch on a downtown rooftop and sending it barreling through the streets as if it had a mind of its own. It even pauses at an intersection and then makes a left turn, as if trying to determine the best escape route, as the frantic museum workers run after it.

An observer who happened to be on an adjacent rooftop captured much of the ensuing chaos and put the clips on Instagram and YouTube. Luckily, the ball is inflatable, so there was no risk of it actually crushing the cars it rolled right over, though it did bend a few street signs and freak out a few drivers. The ball itself, created by artist Kurt Perschke, sustained a little bit of damage on its adventure, but returned to the museum to finish out its residence in Toledo.

redball paris BART Station Market St.

redball project 3

The sculpture has traveled around the world, lodged in every imaginable urban nook and cranny, from alleyways in London and bridges in Paris to the Montreal Biosphere and Chicago’s Grant Park. It’s currently en route to Memphis, Tennessee to begin its next residency.

Bopiliao St in Taipei.

redball project

“Through the RedBall Project I utilize my opportunity as an artist to be a catalyst for new encounters within the everyday,” says Perschke. “Through the magnetic, playful and charismatic nature of the RedBall the work is able to access the imagination embedded in all of us. On the surface, the experience seems to be about the ball itself as an object, but the true power of the project is what it can create for those who experience it. It opens a doorway to imagine what if?”

redball proejct 2 redball chicago

That last statement is especially true when the question is, “What if the ball gets loose and runs around the city?” It’s kind of a shame it didn’t get to travel farther before it was captured and returned.

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[ By Steph in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

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Spherical Tires: Magnetic Levitation for Driverless Vehicles

19 Mar

[ By WebUrbanist in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

magnetic levitation sphere tires

The Eagle 360, a new tire design concept from Goodyear, is a rounded sphere held in place by magnetic fields and designed for a smoother ride in your future driver-free car.

The biggest advantage, of course, is omnidirectional steering capabilities, since the wheels have no orientation, unlike their forward-or-backward circular predecessors.

goodyear tire concept

An organically-patterned, 3D-printed tread is designed to adapt like a sponge to different road conditions, while built-in sensor relay surface measurements to the onboard computer. Faster response times and immediate reaction capabilities in multiple directions all work toward improving passenger safety and comfort.

goodyear tire diagram future

 

“By steadily reducing the driver interaction and intervention in self-driving vehicles, tires will play an even more important role as the primary link to the road,” said Goodyear’s senior vice president Joseph Zekoski.

goodyear maglev tires

“Goodyear’s concept tires play a dual role in that future both as creative platforms to push the boundaries of conventional thinking and test beds for next-generation technologies.”

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Sphericam 2 professional fully spherical camera records 4K/60 fps videos

13 Feb

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The folks at Sphericam are back with a second generation model of their unique angular camera. The Sphericam 2 is, according to the company, the first fully spherical pro-grade 360-degree camera that records 4K footage at 60 fps. The resulting videos can be used in VR applications, as well as on platforms that support 360-degree content like YouTube and Spinnable.

Unlike other spherical cameras, Sphericam features angular sides comprising a geometric design made from anodized aluminum. These ‘faces’ allow the camera to be placed flat on a surface, and also house things like lenses, mounting points, and buttons. Sphericam 2 has six cameras, each using a sensor with global shutter and synchronized to fire within 50 microseconds of each other.

Footage is available as 60 fps raw/unstitched and as 30 fps stitched panoramic videos. Capturing in 30 fps allows the video to be stitched in real time; a live streaming function is currently in development. Content, meanwhile, is recorded at up to 1.2 Gbps to an internal microSD card. The camera supports use of up to six MicroSD cards at once by way of a removable module adding up to a total maximum storage capacity of 768GB, or about 85 minute of footage.

The camera has two power options: a non-removable rechargeable battery for up to 90 minutes of operation, and a USB-C port for continuous operation when plugged in. Finally, Sphericam features a total of 8 mounting points, each a standard threaded 1/4-20 offering, for use with various third-party mounting accessories. 

Sphericam 2 is available for preorder from Sphericam for $ 2499; shipping is estimated to start 10 to 12 weeks after ordering.

Via: Sphericam

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Ricoh offers Theta M15 360-degree spherical camera with video recording

28 Oct

Ricoh has announced the Theta M15, a second version of its 360-degree camera. The M15 is also capable of 360-degree spherical images, which can be viewed using Ricoh’s mobile app or theta360.com. The M15 adds video recording to its portfolio with clips up to three minutes. Learn more

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Ricoh and Google team up to get Theta spherical pictures on Google Maps

31 Jan

Screen_Shot_2014-01-29_at_3.10.28_PM.png

Ricoh has updated the suite of apps provided with the Theta spherical image camera, to allow users to post images from the Theta to Google Maps and Google+. According to Ricoh, these new abilities are a result of collaboration with Google to make the Theta’s images compatible with Photo Sphere XMP, Google’s standard for panoramic images. Click through for more details. 

News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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