Gadgetory

virtual reality really is the next big big thing and of course cnet is bringing you all the latest VR news we're also shooting VR video ourselves this year we're showing you the CES show floor in 360 VR that is right we've teamed up with VR content provider IM 360 to help us out here to tell us more about it is Myles McGovern CEO of I'm 360 thank you so much for being here it's a pleasure thank you very much everybody thank you for allowing us to capture CES in virtual reality we shot that video that's going to be up on cnet very soon and you can use it in a VR sort of headset it's already on YouTube and we actually are going to play a little bit right now so can you kind of like give us an idea of like how this was able to be captured it was using this very impressive sci fi looking device absolutely so we have a number of different cameras and that we use but they're basically using multiple sensors and they take all of that imagery and pull it all together stitch it on the fly and it can automatically be streamed out either live or on-demand so in this particular instance we walked around the floor on an on demand environment captured it all put it together into some small snacks sure that highlights of the show and really put it up for people to have the experience and interact with and if you can see right now Bridget its interactive my little scrolling when I video in real time we're on YouTube right now so anyone can do this and you can watch the mouse cursor sort of drag the video around right now Brian's in front of the intel booth and he's jumping around all over the floor oh there's a drone behind him oh now he's a friend of a car it's kind of amazing it obviously gives you an experience that gives you the control of where to look and I feel like that's a really powerful tool to give an audience so I mean where do you sort of see that moving forward I had what other applications can this technology be applied to I mean we believe the applications are huge our heritage we started working in the military intelligence side we are actually the guys behind Google Street View so you know going out capturing street it's a great app and you know we see this as far as you know education you know educate meant you know these types of experiences whether you know you're able to bring millions of people to CES sure and let them virtually experience this and walk around and it's not only as much as Brian's doing a great job you know curing them through but they can turn around and look you know what's going on behind them at the same time and really get a feel of being there and you give and you give an audience member that choice which totally is a game changer I mean absolutely where you would have this sort of one-way street now it's this interactive situation yes and I'm curious to talk about like the bigger picture of that and where that kind of drives what's being shot and can and how that's being considered for an audience we talked earlier a little bit about you know other applications of entertainment wise for wise live broadcasting it's really powerful stuff absolutely i mean we we believe this you know i hate using the disruptive technology phrase but the reality is i could drop one of these cameras you know ringside or you know courtside at a game right and be able to stream that i can pull out and stream it to tens of millions of people whether it's on your laptop your mobile phone where you can move around look around drop that into a cardboard or you know you can actually stream what we have posted on cnet have that to your gear VR and any other VR device at the same time we see this evolving so that quite frankly if it's a big screen TV you know if I'm you're going to stream the Super Bowl I want to have 40 people and I want to stream it to some sort of set top box that I'm streaming in 1080 or 4k and when something cool happens i can reach forward grab my remote and go wait pan left pan right and move around that view simultaneously somebody could experience this with a headset or mobile device what's the conversation right now in terms of storytelling with VR because like you sit with the Super Bowl example or whatever sporting event you're not going to sit there and watch the whole game like this it's the kind of thing you just pick up and go so is is there more talk now on like different ways of thinking about storytelling Oh absolutely I think this is reshaping the way people you know look at things though the whole idea we call it spherical storytelling and that concept of you know putting people rather than putting a camera in the corner and filming something that's setting a stage you really have to rethink about how do you create some activity around get people to move through environments we did some great stuff in the past Taylor Swift video with that radical and american express and that won an emmy for them it was a fantastic kind of based on the Sleep No More so you're moving through a building and you know it's that type of thing that becomes very exciting for this space that's really cool we talked a little bit earlier about you know sort of like holographic got applications more entertainment motion-capture can you go into a little bit of detail about sure what kind of applications that's used for and I mean that's part of our vision when we we formed a partnership with digital domain right and that was really focused around taking what we do in live-action video and combining their heritage expertise in CG special effects and digital humans so that the two pocket coachella rent created to pas everyone knows exactly so imagine starting to bring Tupac into a VR experience or you know digital humans and they're very real-looking and it becomes a neat experience and then the other piece is is you have we we have the luxury of having a moat cap studio at DD which is bigger than a basketball court and you know you put on the suit but you can put on a headset and walk around it's like a huge vibe you're walking around and we create space most recently we did a project with Mars it's Nassau sponsored thing and it was Mars and you're actually walking around a huge basketball court and it looks like Mars yeah and you're walking up these little ramps and going over bridges and you think like after you start walking around for a few minutes you start your brains tripped it's very neat so you should come out and have the experience I don't ask me choice yeah I feel like you know once you sort of get somebody to wrap their head around just what's possible and applications for VR that no one really thought of before you know you talked about visiting places that we will never physically be able to go to what do you think like the biggest challenge for VR is to permeate that sort of mainstream understanding and for people to really you know have to wrap their heads around it I guess one of the big things is everybody talks about being a massive revolution and I don't think this is going to be like the Russian Revolution and it happens overnight everybody sure I believe every household will have a VR headset of some sort he'll be like growing up with a viewmaster or something and it are we all going to jump right into that and have it I believe that there's it's going to evolve more and more like the Industrial Revolution over time you know the digital era has enabled us to do what we're doing and I see this as being part of any screen that you touch is now going to become more of an immersive so that when you want to take over control there will be those opportunities and whether it's a headset or whether it's an AR type of experience or whether quite frankly I'm streaming the Super Bowl or something and there's a moment where I go well I want to pause this I want to back it up I want to look at the coach now and see what happened when they fumbled that pass it's like being there definitely dictating natick that viewing exactly sure I want to ask about the evolution also of the equipment the camera equipment itself here at CES there's lots to talk about different types of VR cameras people are doing it themselves now very easily there's they're leavin units that are under a thousand dollars so from your perspective as as a professional company who makes these what where are things going to the point where like anyone can just buy this and make it themselves how is that changing the whole the whole medium I I think it that's a very critical piece I mean when we first built these we built the first ones with the three-letter agency and it worked with them on developing for 3d reconstruction and tell us about the one you have here because this was not yes forget so this this is just we call this our hex and it's it's a camera that takes six has six sensors on it captures it all stitches it we have a platform that it ties to that stitches it all together but where we're going with this we just recently completed a project with DARPA and it was building us camera very small deployable it's about the size of a racquetball and you know they see the price point coming down those are 4k cameras very high resolution small portable type systems there's even a camera on the top that's where it screws in and then on the top that's right so that this one has what we call a nadir so it attaches to something there are other ones that are nadir less I know and now you here google you know like we just heard earlier in the year they have the things where you put like all the group GoPros around there's a lot of different variations of how to do this video yourself but I don't know we're professionals see things compared to amateur taking 360 video I think you're going to have you know both ends of the spectrum so we're pushing the upper limits to push this to very high resolution high frame rates and so forth and you know at the same time getting something into more the lower end consumer side that lets people go out and if I want to shoot something and let you know grandma grandpa experience a birthday party or something at home level it should be as easy as getting the you know out your camcorder quite frankly your phone and you know integrating it to that and be able to go live stream this or you don't record it and post it up on youtube or some private channel are there any restrictions with the file size issues that like with how much is being recorded at once they're bigger I mean there's no doubt yeah six rolling yeah but we we just we use the same pipeline that you use for your existing so if you have a 4k network here we take this all compress it down to a 4k and move it across that network so we're only as strong as the weakest link all right well thank you so much miles fresh appreciated thank you writing this technology again you can check out the video up on cnet