When I got my Oculus dev kit I was most excited about the potential for designing interactive experiences driven by unity / 3d graphics.<p>Then I checked out a "wingsuit" video shot in 360 degrees and realized I had completely missed the potential of the platform:<p><a href="http://www.makingview.com/makingview.com/?page_id=1691" rel="nofollow">http://www.makingview.com/makingview.com/?page_id=1691</a><p>The resolution is mediocre but for a first-gen experience in VR I was literally floored. I showed these demos to some unwitting subjects and where riftcoaster was "WOW" the 360 video had their mouths hanging open.<p>And this isn't speculative or crazy expensive - 360 riggings + cameras can be had for <$2k and here are lots of interesting experiences already popping up.<p>Rigging:<p><a href="http://www.360heros.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.360heros.com/</a> or <a href="http://freedom360.us/" rel="nofollow">http://freedom360.us/</a><p>Demos:<p><a href="http://immersivemedia.com/demos/" rel="nofollow">http://immersivemedia.com/demos/</a><p><a href="http://www.airpano.com/360-videos.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.airpano.com/360-videos.php</a>
Ah, this is just beautiful.<p>There's a whole community flying model airplanes trough a camera and video goggles:
<a href="http://vimeo.com/16604842" rel="nofollow">http://vimeo.com/16604842</a>
The first time I saw this was Human Planet, in an episode about Kazakh hunters training Golden Eagles to hunt foxes for them:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y3Dl0BGFfw" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y3Dl0BGFfw</a><p>The extras part of the documentary includes a behind-the-scenes look at getting the birds-eye shot.
is there anything that suggests this is an actual GoPro?<p>i own several of them and i'd imagine that because of the way they have to be mounted, their width and frontal surface area would impede flying quite significantly.<p>i'm inclined to think it's a more slender camera, like the Contour. <a href="http://store.contour.com/ae/us/page/home" rel="nofollow">http://store.contour.com/ae/us/page/home</a><p>GoPro goes way overboard with their marketing; they've become the Kleenex of action cams.
As an ex-games developer it reminded me of flying around a level editor with a fixed forward speed and using a mouse for orientation.<p>Maybe that's just me!
I'd quite like to see what it looks like with the visual acuity of an eagle as well. Or at least some representation. EG where we see blobs of colour as cars in a car park, the eagle sees the mouse under the front bumper of the red one.
It's done as an a animation, but here's a similar video from the point-of-view of a kiwi bird:<p><a href="http://cliffpavlovic.com/2007/04/kiwi-an-animated-short/" rel="nofollow">http://cliffpavlovic.com/2007/04/kiwi-an-animated-short/</a><p>Animation or not, it may be the most poignant short film that I've ever seen.