Chinese company YI has introduced a new consumer camera called the YI 360 VR. This model features a pair of cameras with 220-degree f/2.0 aspheric glass lenses, one on the front and another on the back, that simultaneously record footage. The resulting videos have up to a 4K/30fps resolution if stitched in-camera, while footage stitched using the camera’s PC app maxes out at 5.7K/30fps resolution.

The YI 360 VR is compatible with both the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets. The camera supports recording 4K video for up to 60 minutes per charge, and you’ve got integrated dual-band WiFi for livestreaming in 4K.

Users are able to preview the footage in five modes: little planet, stretched view, panoramic, round, and dual VR. Here’s a quick introduction that gives you an idea of the kinds of shots you can expect from the YI 360 VR:…[continue reading]

Introducing the YI 360 VR camera #YI360

Watch on YouTube

Kyt Dotson with SiliconANGLE spoke with two VR insiders Jon “Neverdie” Jacobs from Neverdie Studios and Dipak Patel co-founder and CEO of Zeality Inc. about the future VR has and what’s to be expected in 2018.  They both seem optimistic of the technological advances that will be making virtual reality easier to acquire.  A lot of 360-degree equipment to produce and watch virtual reality content is as of right now pretty pricey.  But as the demand grows the price will naturally come down and now the innovations for the devices are finally meeting to allow more users to access the equipment.

As for right now, producing virtual reality and 360-degree video is in the present.  With many camera and housing setups like the 360Rize Yi 360Orb and the affordable YI 360 VR Camera available now, novice filmmakers and content creators can get a hold of this technology now.  For those more experienced and ambitious, the Samsung 360 Round Camera is the best option for those serious about diving into virtual reality.  The diversity in the technology in these products plus the experience levels being met by the manufacturers, this is proof that virtual reality content will only grow.

The year 2018 may be the start of VR hitting the mainstream as headsets come into their second generation and will become cheaper, lighter and easier to use. Head-mounted displays released from Facebook Inc.’s Oculus VR, HTC Corp. and Sony Corp. in 2016 and 2017 can cost anywhere from $400 to $800, which is a barrier to wide adoption.

“I don’t expect the headsets to fly off the shelves,” Patel told SiliconANGLE, imagining a ramp-up in the market. “Rather, I see steady but small growth within the video game community driving the majority of it. They will get smaller and more consumer-friendly.”

“I predict constant progress with the technology, which is going to make it sexier and sexier,” Jacobs told SiliconANGLE, “in particular ‘inside-out’ and ‘eye tracking’ for VR.”

The concept of “inside out” tracking is that VR headsets can keep track of orientation and position in space – basically how a VR game or environment would allow a user to look around and move around. With inside-out tracking, the headset determines its own position with sensors without the need for a room to be outfitted with extra hardware and sensors.

Eye tracking, in particular, will be fundamental to VR technology in 2018. This is because rendering a VR experience even, on tiny screens near the eyes, takes a lot of computer power. That limits how games, entertainment and apps that can be written.

The year 2018 also has something else weird going for it: more movies that use VR as a foundation for the plot such as “Ready Player One,” expected to release in March. “Ready Player One” posits a dystopian future, a world wrecked by an energy crisis, in which much of the world is wired in to virtual reality, and VR is the way people interact, play games and experience entertainment….[continue reading]

CES 2017 saw some really hot announcements, such as much-awaited Panasonic GH5, which you can read all about in our post here, and now Chinese tech company YI launched the 4K+ Action Camera – which just happens to be the world’s first action camera capable of recording 4K/60p video.

The new YI 4K+ is the successor to the already popular YI 4K action camera, that was released just a few months ago last Summer. We covered the YI 4K in this post here. The new YI 4K+ action camera features a 12.3 Megapixel Sony IMX377 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor, which is the same sensor the company put in the predecessor YI 4K Action camera. Some say (although this has not been confirmed by GoPro) that this very well may be the same sensor used in the GoPro Hero5 Black.

What’s different in the YI 4K+ is the new model action camera now utilizes the new and more powerful Ambarella H2 chipset with Quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 64-bit CPU, which gives the camera the extra oomph needed for 4K/60p….[continue reading]