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Transportation Technology

New 360-Degree Video Capture Method Unveiled 58

cartechboy writes "Mercedes-Benz has devised a crazy new 360-degree video capture method that allows you to follow live-action video from just about any angle you choose. This new piece of tech will launch with the Mercedes AMG F1 team this year, and gives you the ability to swivel and tilt the camera angle in pretty much any direction as the car speeds around the track. The device uses wide-angle cameras arranged in a ball and then stitched together into a panoramic view. Of course there's an iOS app that lets you watch all this."
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New 360-Degree Video Capture Method Unveiled

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  • When I was little, I used to imagine what it might be like to somehow connect a radar system to my gameboy and watch as we drove down the road. As I was typing that, it seemed relevant. Now, I'm not too sure.

    • by AK Marc ( 707885 )
      I'm waiting for the driving goggles that have cameras around the car feeding into a VR headset. 360 view in 180 headturn. No blind spots. No need for windows, and optics that correct for any human deficiency (color-mapped to change traffic light color for colorblind drivers, off-center warnings to indicate emergency vehicles and situations). Piping information in to a driver in real-time with image processing is the next step of safety. Full HUD and image corrections to "fix" common human errors.
  • Sounds like they teamed up with this guy: http://www.panono.com/ballcame... [panono.com]

    • Or Google Maps. This has been done a number of times. The 'interesting' spin here is that it is hooked to a Formula One car and they have rigged the streams to allow multiple people to 'point' the camera. And of course, an iOS app. Gotta have one of them.

      • CBC used to do this for hockey games. You could go to the website and choose your angle of view. Formula One would probably be a better use for it though.
  • by Stoutlimb ( 143245 ) on Wednesday February 19, 2014 @08:05PM (#46291673)

    A new 360 degree video capture method? Or the same old method, done again? I read the article and I can't think of what's new about this method. Now a spherical CCD would be new and interesting. It's a nice system, but new method?

  • by Anonymous Coward

    I have seen this done before and it isn't so "crazy". Yay sensational media!

  • Seems like a good idea for a race car and can probably be integrated into self-driving cars at some point.

    http://www.northropgrumman.com... [northropgrumman.com]
  • by Obfuscant ( 592200 ) on Wednesday February 19, 2014 @08:35PM (#46291863)
    This. [ptgrey.com]
    • by rHBa ( 976986 )
      Or this [slashdot.org] perhaps?
    • Or This. Eye-Mirror seems to be the coolest method of doing 360 degree video with a single camera! https://www.kickstarter.com/pr... [kickstarter.com]
      • Nor is a simple conical mirror in front of the lens really new. I saw papers on that probably ten years ago. The disadvantage is that you are getting lower resolution by using one sensor, and those at the edges have serious distortion to them.

        It's also not a spherical system, it's only circular. While the camera is looking up, the mirror makes it look sideways and blocks "up", and you have no "down" at all.

  • by im_thatoneguy ( 819432 ) on Wednesday February 19, 2014 @09:00PM (#46292011)

    Mercedes-Benz has devised a crazy new 360-degree video capture method

    What is this crazy new system you ask? The exact same system that 360 degree video has always been captured!

  • On my 2GHz laptop, the CPU is pinned to 100%, and all I see are frozen frames that skip through the video every few seconds. The dragging response is so sluggish as to be meaningless since any visual feedback is delayed many seconds. I guess this technology isn't ready for prime time unless you have a bleeding edge gamer GPU or something.
  • by Anonymous Coward
    ...but four pi steradians.
  • Red Bull did this a year and a half ago... http://www.redbullusa.com/cs/S... [redbullusa.com]
  • the mercedes project was shot with this device - http://freedom360.us/ [freedom360.us]

    basically it is an array of gopro cameras which has been used in many 360 video projects over the last few years

    more info on the mercedes shoot here - http://visualise.com/news/2014... [visualise.com]
  • Apple's marketing dept. couldn't have said it better.

  • Assuming the racing car is going around in a loop of some form, just fix the camera to the car and you'll get a 360 image.
  • Where an article about a Mercedes-Benz camera devolves into a thread about Apple developers within one page.
  • We have a video conferencing device that does the exact same thing. Nothing new here.

  • Now with Fisheye as standard.

    360 view, nothing new.
    At least get the camera smoothed out like the gyro system in Moto GP, then it will be news worth reading.

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