Since the inception of virtual reality technology, we have come a long way watching the tech develop. Now, people use the said technology to create their favorite pub or roam around historic places virtually. However, Google’s AI division is pushing the technology further as they see the potential of virtual reality in improving media. This is the reason they have developed a 46-camera rig to capture unique VR videos that let viewers change the video perspective and see objects that weren’t even there in the first place.
The Mountain View-based tech giant has been experimenting with VR technology for quite some time. Their latest project, the “Light Field Videos”, will be presented at SIGGRAPH, the annual conference on computer graphics to be held from July 19-July 23.
Now, with this new technique of capturing videos, Google is using an array of cameras to capture footage of a scene simultaneously. They are then taking all the footage and merging all of it to make a comprehensive 3D video with which viewers can interact much more freely than traditional VR experiences.
The “light field videos” are specially made that allow the viewers to change the perspective of the video in real-time just by moving their viewpoint. Users can move their heads to various directions to see objects that weren’t even there in the frame the first time. This makes these videos much truer to life than any other VR video that you have ever seen.
So, if you are intrigued by this project, you can check it out on its official website for more technical details. You can also check out the sample “light field videos” that Google made as long as you have the Chrome browser and enable the “experimental web platform” feature of the web-browser.
