There were plenty of exciting announcements made at Google’s I/O annual conference last week, and their partnership with GoPro in virtual reality development is yet another exciting venture. The two companies are working on a 16-camera GoPro rig that utilizes Google software to sync the cameras. As it stands, anyone can mount as many GoPro cameras as they want, but linking them so they begin recording at the same time is another story.
Google’s new Jump platform (another product revealed at I/O), assembles and processes the footage from each camera into one file that can be edited after. Jump also allows sharing of the assembled video on YouTube. To view the VR footage, you’ll need Google Cardboard, Microsoft HoloLens, or Oculus-type device. Using Google Cardboard, for example, a mounted smartphone delivers the video and audio.
To get a sense of what a GoPro VR rig can do, check out the video below hosted by GoPro-owned Kolor. You can pan around the video by clicking the mouse and dragging, using the mouse scroll wheel, or using a keyboard’s arrow keys. The video shows off a 360° Camera Array for stereoscopic, spherical content capture.
To extend the experience to whatever device you have, you can also download the Kolor Eyes software for Windows PCs, Macs, iOS, Android, and Google Chrome.
GoPro also announced a spherical camera mount that can hold 6 Hero4 GoPro cameras. The six images are joined seamlessly by Kolor software. (Mount pictured below.)
