Facebook Built Its Own Open Source VR Camera

Facebook decided to attract more 360-degree-video content on their social media platform by relying on their own strengths, not others’. Zuckerberg’s company released their own VR camera with the intention of making it open-source #realitymagic

Surround 360 looks like an UFO with 17 “eyes” on a stick but instead of complicating our lives, it’s designed to make them easier. The 4-megapixel lenses will shoot in 4/6/8K, releasing the footage on a hard drive over USB connection. The footage is seamless, even at the top and bottom of the camera, where there are two fish lenses.

Facebook says it’s aluminum casing makes it resistent in desert-like conditions and proper to shoot for many hours straight without the risk of overheating. The rolling base is easy to move and carry with you and since it uses genlocking to put the lenses together, footage is ready to process much faster.

According to Techcrunch, the video samples presented by Facebook look very good and hide perfectly the parts where the images were stitched together.

Surround 360 won’t be sold as it is, instead Facebook will put the hardware designs and algorithms on Github while the parts can be bought separately for  $30,000.