This article was published on April 12, 2016

Facebook’s ‘Surround 360’ is a $30k camera that shoots 360 video in 8k resolution


Facebook’s ‘Surround 360’ is a $30k camera that shoots 360 video in 8k resolution

It’s no secret that Facebook has gone all-in on virtual reality. But if you had, for just a moment, lost sight of that fact its new ‘Surround 360’ camera should put things back into perspective for you.

Today at F8, Facebook announced its Surround 360 camera, a 17-lens 3D VR rig that looks like ‘Gravitron‘ but shoots top-notch 360 degree video. All told, its 17 4-megapixel lenses can shoot in resolution up to 8k and each individual layer acts as a built-in heatsink.

Surround 360 requires almost zero of the post-production effort of most VR rigs, assuming you’re willing to do a little work upfront and shell out the $30,000 for parts.

If that sounds like you, Facebook has said it’ll post the hardware design and video stitching algorithms on GitHub later this summer.

The 💜 of EU tech

The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!

The rig is actually comparable to Google’s ‘Jump’ project, but we’re lacking a few details to determine which would be the better bargain.

Get the TNW newsletter

Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.

Also tagged with