It’s no secret that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is betting the future of his company on ‘digital reality’. In the past couple of years, the company has acquired and partnered with a lot of companies that are working in developing a better augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) platforms. But it’s only now that we are beginning to understand the bigger picture that Facebook has been working on.
The social media behemoth on the second day of its annual developers’ conference launched a brand new 360-degree VR camera that will improve your VR experience. Last year, the company had announced the ‘Surround 360’, a 360-degree video capture system that captured 360-degree videos, stitched and rendered them online. But it’s only now that the full scope of that technology has come to life.
Facebook announced two new 360-degree cameras– x24 and its younger brother x6 at F8. According to the company, the two new VR cameras give you six degrees of freedom, ‘bringing the feeling of immersion and depth to a whole new level’.
As the name suggests, x24 consists of 24 cameras that capture videos from all possible angles. On the other hand, x6 is smaller in size and consists of 6 cameras and can capture 360-degree videos on the go.
So how are these better than the existing VR gears?
ALSO READ: Facebook F8 2017: Camera, Messenger 2.0 and more. All you need to know
Traditionally, when you view a video via your VR gear, you appear to be moving while your surroundings remain still. This can be a bit uncomfortable. However, the with x24 and x6, Facebook intends to remove this barrier by letting you move your head to a position where the camera never was. The outcome is a more immersive VR experience. To put it simply with the two new VR cameras you would feel as if you are actually in the video.
But sadly, you won’t be able to get your hands on this amazing anytime soon as the company has no plans of bringing this technology to the market. According to a report in Engadget, as of now, the company has no plans to bring this technology to the consumers.
