Google Is Using GoPros to Create More Lifelike VR Content

Virtual Reality is chop-chop becoming commonplace with Google launching multiple efforts to bring VR content to the masses, and companies like Oculus and HTC working to create some of the most avant-garde VR headsets in the world.

Now, while VR images taken from rigs similar Google'southward Jump VR, and VR180 are pretty neat in their own right, they still don't give a feeling of really being in the identify. After all, in reality, perspective changes how objects expect, you can look around an object to run into what's behind information technology and more. This is where Light Fields come into play, and Google is researching them now.

Google Is Using GoPros to Create More Lifelike VR Content — Prototype: Google

Using what looks like essentially a repurposed Jump VR rig, Google VR researchers are researching Light Fields.

Light Fields, according to Google'due south blog post, are a "set of advanced capture, stitching, and rendering algorithms." VR images captured with Light Fields effect in a much higher quality sense of presence inside the VR world by introducing concepts of motility parallax and bringing realistic textures, and lighting.

Google goes into bones details, explaining how the company is capturing Light Fields imagery, including a revolving rig of 16 GoPro cameras that swing effectually, recording around a thousand viewpoints in a infinitesimal. This captured data is then processed, stitched, and rendered into a highly realistic looking VR still paradigm that users can experience.

The visitor has already tried Low-cal Fields out in a number of places including the Discovery Infinite Shuttle, St. Stephen's Church in Granada, the Hazard House in Pasadena, and more, and has made these images bachelor for users to experience in its 'Welcome to Light Fields' app that is available for HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Windows Mixed Reality headsets in the Steam VR shop.

If you lot have an HTC Vive, an Oculus Rift, or a Windows Mixed Reality headset, you should definitely download Google's "Welcome to Light Fields" app (free) from the Steam VR Shop and feel what Lite Fields can bring to the world of virtual reality.