360-degree videos, also known as surround video, or immersive videos or spherical videos, are video recordings where a view in every direction is recorded at the same time, shot using an

omnidirectional camera In photography, an omnidirectional camera (from "omni", meaning all), also known as 360-degree camera, is a camera having a field of view that covers approximately the entire sphere or at least a full circle in the horizontal plane. Omnidirection ...

or a collection of cameras. During playback on normal flat display the viewer has control of the viewing direction like a

panorama A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word was originally coined in ...

. It can also be played on a display or projectors arranged in a sphere or some part of a sphere.

Creation

360-degree video is typically recorded using either a special rig of multiple cameras, or using a dedicated camera that contains multiple camera lenses embedded into the device, and recording overlapping angles simultaneously. Specialized

s and rigs have been developed for the purpose of recording 360-degree video, including rigs such as

GoPro GoPro, Inc. (marketed as GoPro and sometimes stylized as GoPRO) is an American technology company founded in 2002 by Nick Woodman. It manufactures action cameras and develops its own mobile apps and video-editing software. Founded as Woodman La ...

's Omni and Odyssey (which consist of multiple action cameras installed within a frame), and contained cameras like the

Nokia OZO Nokia OZO is providing leading audio software technologies for smartphone, tablet, laptop, and camera manufacturers. The offering covers both audio capture and playback solutions. OZO Audio utilizes pioneering spatial audio technology to capture ...

. There have also been handheld dual-lens cameras such as the Ricoh Theta S,

Samsung Gear 360 The Samsung Gear 360 is the first 360 degree camera by Samsung Electronics. It was released as a part of the Samsung Gear family of devices. It uses two cameras to take 360° photos and videos. There are two models: * The original model released ...

, Garmin VIRB 360, and the Kogeto Dot 360—a panoramic camera lens accessory for smartphone cameras. This separate footage is stitched into one spherical video piece, and the color and contrast of each shot is calibrated to be consistent with the others. This process is done either by the camera itself, or using specialized software that can analyze common visuals and audio to synchronize and link the different camera feeds together. Generally, the only area that cannot be viewed is the view toward the camera support. 360-degree video is typically formatted in an

equirectangular projection The equirectangular projection (also called the equidistant cylindrical projection or la carte parallélogrammatique projection), and which includes the special case of the plate carrée projection (also called the geographic projection, lat/lon ...

and is either monoscopic, with one image directed to both eyes, or

stereoscopic Stereoscopy (also called stereoscopics, or stereo imaging) is a technique for creating or enhancing the depth perception, illusion of depth in an image by means of stereopsis for binocular vision. The word ''stereoscopy'' derives . Any stere ...

, viewed as two distinct images directed individually to each eye for a 3D effect. Due to this projection and stitching, equirectangular video exhibits a lower quality in the middle of the image than at the top and bottom. Spherical videos are frequently in

curvilinear perspective Curvilinear perspective, also five-point perspective, is a graphical projection used to draw 3D objects on 2D surfaces. It was formally codified in 1968 by the artists and art historians André Barre and Albert Flocon in the book ''La Perspective c ...

with a fisheye effect. The heavy barrel distortion often requires rectilinear correction before applications in detection, tracking or navigation. Some storytellers refer to 360-degree video that uses professional cinematic production techniques such as lighting design, sound design,

scenic design Scenic design (also known as scenography, stage design, or set design) is the creation of theatrical, as well as film or television scenery. Scenic designers come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, but in recent years, are mostly trained ...

, and blocking techniques as

cinematic virtual reality Cinematic virtual reality (Cine-VR) is an immersive experience where the audience can look around in 360 degrees while hearing spatialized audio specifically designed to reinforce the belief that the audience is actually in the virtual environment r ...

(or cine-VR for short).

Playback

360-degree videos are typically viewed via personal computers, mobile devices such as smartphones, or dedicated head-mounted displays. Users can pan around the video by clicking and dragging. On smartphones, internal sensors such as the

gyroscope A gyroscope (from Ancient Greek γῦρος ''gŷros'', "round" and σκοπέω ''skopéō'', "to look") is a device used for measuring or maintaining orientation and angular velocity. It is a spinning wheel or disc in which the axis of rota ...

can also be used to pan the video based on the orientation of the device. Taking advantage of this behavior, stereoscope-style enclosures for smartphones (such as Google Cardboard viewers and the Samsung Gear VR) can be used to view 360-degree videos in an immersive format similar to virtual reality. The phone display is viewed through lenses contained within the enclosure, as opposed to virtual reality headsets that contain their own dedicated displays.

Publishing

In March 2015, YouTube launched support for publishing and viewing 360-degree videos, with playback on its website and its

Android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...

mobile apps. Parent company Google also announced that it would collaborate with camera manufacturers to make it easier for creators to upload 360-degree content recorded with their products to YouTube. However, in 2017, Google and YouTube began to promote an alternative monoscopic or stereoscopic video format known as VR180, which is limited to a 180-degree field of view, but is promoted as being more accessible to produce than 360-degree video, and allowing more depth to be maintained by not subjecting the video to equirectangular projection Facebook (parent company of VR headset maker Oculus VR) followed suit by adding 360-degree video support in September 2015, and subsequently unveiled reference designs for its own 360-degree camera systems known as Facebook Surround 360. Facebook announced in March 2017 that more than 1 million 360-degree videos had been uploaded to Facebook to date. Vimeo also launched 360-degree video support in March 2017. Google Cardboard, which is typically distributed in the form of do-it-yourself kits consisting of low-cost materials and components, has been credited with helping virtual reality become more readily available to the general public, and helping boost the adoption of 360-degree video by publishers, such as mainstream journalists and media brands. The use of the term "virtual reality" to describe 360-degree video has been disputed, as VR typically refers to interactive experiences wherein the viewer's motions can be tracked to allow real-time interactions within a virtual environment, with orientation and position tracking. In 360-degree video, the locations of viewers are fixed, viewers are limited to the angles captured by the cameras, and cannot interact with the environment. The non-dynamic nature of video also means that rendering techniques cannot be used to reduce the risk of motion sickness.

Variations

* 6DOF video: stereoscopic 360-degree video which also captures depth and allows for six degrees of freedom in navigation within the captured environment * Volumetric video

References

External links

How do I make 360 videos?
by

BBC Academy The BBC Academy is an educational arm of the British Broadcasting Corporation which trains current and prospective broadcasting employees in the skills of the Broadcasting industry, in addition to training the corporation's own staff and prospect ...