Recording virtual reality

Canadian company Immersive Media has developed a 360º multi-camera system that can be mounted on a car or backpack to record the world around it. Pete Hathaway of European distributor TX Immersive – based in Shepperton Film Studios – described it as “virtual reality using real video”. The eleven 640 x 480 pixel camera heads record a unified 885 Mbits/sec of data which can be played back and viewed anywhere within the 360º x 290º virtual environment either in pause mode or in real time, on a PC or in immersive visual reality through ‘eyephones’, or projected in the inside of a dome. Applications are seen in security surveillance or training soldiers and the police, but it has other possible uses. Since the camera head is quite light and the base unit weighs less than 10kg, it is possible to either make recordings using a back pack, or mount all the recording equipment on a small ROV. It is thus possible to make recordings for virtual tourism, and to make assessments of situations in hazardous environments.