Facebook Created 360 Degree Camera
Facebook unveiled its 360 degree virtual reality camera called Surround 360. It was unveiled at the company's annual F8 Conference for developers in San Francisco on April 12. But before you start planning to save money to purchase it, we have 1 bad news for you. Facebook has no intention of selling the gadget in the market. Exclusively releasing it as a prototype, the technology giant is instead releasing Surround 360’s design specs, hardware and software information to the public for free.
“We’re not going to sell the camera. The intent of the 360 camera, called The Surround 360, is to entice developers to take Facebook’s design and run with it. We’re trying to help create a great reference device,” explains Chris Cox, Facebook’s Chief Product Officer.
The Surround 360 project, was created to find innovative designs that could capture 360-degree video for compelling content that can be viewed on Facebook's social media platform and by users of Oculus virtual reality products. Facebook acquired Oculus for $1.9 billion in March 2014 to expand its social media footprint in a new direction.
The cool gadget is described as: “Built from off-the-shelf hardware worth roughly $30,000, this black circular camera—with its 17 evenly spaced lenses—looks kinda like the flying droid that descends onto the ice planet at the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back (though it lacks those insect-like dangly legs). Drawing images from all 17 of those lenses, it produces 360-degree spherical video for viewing both inside virtual reality headsets like the Samsung Gear (stereoscopic 3D) and on ordinary smartphones, tablets, and PCs (monoscopic).”
By creating this prototype and releasing its design to the public for free, predictors said that Facebook is planning to increase the social media engagement for 360-degree videos. They believe that this medium will become the new driving force that will attract more people into Facebook’s social network.
