In only ten years, GoPro has earned itself a 2+ billion dollar valuation and a product that has revolutionized the way we view our lives. It’s no wonder others are scrabbling to tap into the lucrative business of personalized video. The latest product that looks like it may hold more than a passing interest is the Bublcam, a camera that shoots a seamless 360 degree view. It might sound like a gimmick, but think about Google Street View, how immersive it feels. When Google integrates more fully the ability to provide internal views, we'll really begin to start to see possibilities of 360 degree vision.
My first experience of interactive 360 degree video work came from Immersive Media, one of the current innovators in the field of capturing this sort of video. They put up a 360 degree view from one of the skydivers in the 2012 head down freefly formation a few years back. Although I think this was shot with a multiple GoPro configuration, the possibility of what interactive 360 degree field of vision gives you was pretty interesting.
Bubly Technology Inc has been formed and sets out to revolutionize video in much the way GoPro did with their original Hero. The investment on Kickstarter has hit it’s target which means this thing will be coming to market. It looks like early investors who put in CAS $399 or more secured a camera, and there is a note on that donation amount that says at that price they've saved at least $350 on the retail price. That would put this thing into the US$700 price range.
Whether it takes off at that price point like GoPro did, or how you go from capturing 360 degree video to making it fully interactive remains to be seen. Saying that, I can guarantee that we'll be seeing a few people playing around with this thing and probably coming up with some pretty amazing stuff that gives us a glimpse of what the world of immersive video is going to look like.
Post a comment and let us know what you think about the possibilities of 360 degree interactive video.
Aerial photo or video might take a new direction with this!!!
this is probably not the "aerial" video you are thinking of, but here's an example of a type of aerial work (BASE jumping) where interactive 360 is already offering more immersive experiences:
http://www.fastcocreate.com/3019096/this-360-degree-interactive-wingsuit...
I found a similar product months ago. Basically a pano video accessory for GoPro called 360 Hero. They have an aerial video using one of their systems and a DJI multirotor. Pretty cool stuff. http://www.360heros.com/2013/03/omsi-360-video-aerial-flight-in-portland...
Imagine how helpful this would be for location scouting where Google Street View doesn't reach.
GoPano came up with an accessory for iPhones that provides 360 degree video as well, but for way less. The quality isn't too good though since it's made out of plastic, including the mirror/s that reflect the scene to the iPhone's camera.
This looks amazing