The Korean tech giant is not spending all of its R&D time and money on smartphones and tablets, even though the other devices might end up being used in tandem with these.
Project Beyond is the world’s first 3D 360-degree camera, and this sentence alone should give you a bit to think about how far companies have gone to take photography, video capture and recording to levels that were basically inconceivable before. Project Beyond was not built for any time of video capture, but as some sort of accessory for another of Samsung’s projects, the Gear VR headset. More precisely, Project Beyond is meant to capture 3D footage in 360 degrees, in order to create 360-degree environments for the VR headset.
This couldn’t have been achieved so easily using a dome camera, so Samsung proceeded to incorporating 16 + 1 full HD cameras in Project Beyond. Just take a few seconds to wrap your mind around this crazy concept.
Project Beyond could have a lot of applications. First of all, game developers would be able to create more realistic environments. Secondly, I can see how this device could make its way into the arms of 3D mapping software developers. That’s another industry that has yet to show its full potential. If you can think of other ways Project Beyond could prove useful, write them down below, in the comments section.
Watch the following video to get an idea about how Project Beyond looks and works in real life. Also included is a bit of footage recorded using this 3D camera, but watching it on a monitor is nothing like wearing the VR headset and walking through the 360-degree environment.
For the time being, it is unknown whether Samsung showcased this as a proof of concept, or if the company really means to launch it alongside the Gear VR headset. As no exact launch date is known, there’s obviously no way to tell how much this device would cost. Still, you have to admit that Samsung has come up with something very original in the world of virtual reality equipment, as neither Oculus VR (who is actually helping Samsung to develop its virtual reality headset), nor Sony (who has its own Project Morpheus) have thought of developing such a straight-forward solution for creating realistic 360-degree environments.
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