What is vr, vr panorama?

Although VR technology and related products have only become popular in recent years, the concept of virtual reality is nothing new. Just like the rise of 3D technology at the beginning of this century, although 3D technology has been put forward for many years, it was not until nearly 10 that 3D imaging technology was popularized. The earliest consumer-grade VR products appeared in the 1990s. The reason why VR technology, which has suddenly become popular recently, has received so much attention and recognition is that through technological innovation and progress, the goal of virtual reality has finally been gradually realized: through advanced sensing equipment, VR products can enable users to get the experience of being immersed in another world and be able to interact with the virtual environment in this virtual world.

Nowadays, with the development of virtual reality technology, the realism of the fictional electronic world has reached a super-class level. For example, flight simulators, imaginary distant planets, etc. These scenes are all made by computers. At present, the leaders of VR technology are Oculus Rift, Sony PlayStation VR, Samsung Gear VR and HTC Vive. The VR experience of these products is almost related to games.

The sensors loaded in the VR helmet can detect and continuously track the movement of the user's head and line of sight. By tracking users' data, users can navigate in the virtual reality world, and users can interact with the surrounding environment, thus providing users with an immersive feeling. The "interactive" experience between people and environment is the most important difference between deep multimedia experience and VR experience. In the VR environment, users can be participants in the environment, not just spectators.

1.360 full-motion video

The NYT VR video released by The New York Times in collaboration with Google Cardboard is very cool, but we must realize that it is not real VR. The experience of watching photos on Flickr VR is also quite good, but this is not VR. The same situation also appeared in GoPro's VR videos of Surf, Moto and Ski.

These quite good video and photo viewing experiences mentioned above are essentially 360-degree videos and photos, which can capture the all-round 3D scene of the subject through the camera. These all-round video materials can be played through a VR helmet, which can bring users a very strong immersive experience, but these videos and materials are not virtual synthesis, but the splicing of real video materials. During the experience, users can look around and even explore the scenes in other places in the image, but they can't interact with the scenes, nor can they really touch or change anything in the video like traveling in real life. All the information captured by the camera before is the limit that users can explore. 360 panoramic image data is a brand-new shooting method and presentation technology. In fact, we don't need a VR helmet to get this experience. 2D screen can meet our needs. So 360 panoramic image is not equal to VR.

Although the two are not the same, for most of us, the experience of 360 panoramic content is our first attempt to experience immersive VR. There are a lot of contents and materials on the market now, and a lot of new 360 panoramic image information emerges on YouTube and Facebook every day. Bian Xiao bet that most people who have experienced mobile VR devices are talking about 360 panoramic images, not games. We believe that the number of panoramic images will increase exponentially in the next time. Behind the data growth, large companies and small teams are constantly injecting new experience content into the market in order to promote their product experience. In addition, the experience cost of such content is not particularly high, and mobile VR devices are enough, without the help of high-end PC hosts.

360 full-motion video is very cool, and such technology will probably be subversive for the changes in our daily life. This technology may be applied to the live broadcast of information. For example, we can watch all-round presidential debates, professional basketball games, media conferences and even boxing matches online with VR helmets.

2. Augmented reality

Although virtual reality and 360 full-motion video are not the same, they have one thing in common: just like a good movie, it can make users feel that they are in another world, whether it is made up by a computer processor or the image data of a distant place in the world. Augmented reality (AR) is different. AR mixes the user's current real environment with virtual scenes and objects, perfectly combines the scenes mixed with real and virtual things, and then transmits them to the user's eyes.

At present, the best performance among AR products is Microsoft's HoloLens system. This helmet includes a camera, through which users can see the surrounding indoor conditions. At the same time, through the helmet, users can also see scenes made up of computers, such as a huge spider lying on the wall. Of course, AR is not only used to make jokes or horror movies. Sean Hollister, a senior editor of CNET, experienced a scene driven by AR technology, which he thought would probably subvert the future consumer market structure. In this experience, Sean directly experienced the whole process of buying and choosing a car indoors. He was sitting in the bathroom at home wearing an AR helmet. AR technology showed him a virtual Volvo S90. In this way, Sean got in touch with all the details of an S90 in his bathroom.

Microsoft is not the only company exploring AR technology. Another strong competitor in the field of AR technology is Magic Leap, which was very popular in major technology media before. The company supported by Google has not yet launched any hardware devices, but the concept video they released has become a hot topic all over the world. In the video, several scenes are said to be working demonstrations, including a robot made by a computer, which appears out of thin air under the desk in the office, and a demonstration, which shows a virtual model of the solar system in the center of the room.

Whether it is Microsoft, Magic Leap or other R&D teams that are not well-known at present, the AR technology they are good at is to integrate and interact virtual objects created by computers with real scenes, which is the biggest difference between AR and VR. Let's make an analogy to explain this difference: AR can create a "My World" game world for you directly on your dining table, while VR makes you wear a helmet, as if you are completely in the "My World" world, and you can't see your own dining table at all.

3. Remote imaging

At present, we have talked about VR technology: let users enter a world completely fictional by computers; AR technology: let users see the virtual scene created by the computer in the current environment. Remote imaging technology is somewhat similar to the result of mixing ar and VR. It can communicate with others online in another place in a form similar to a robot.

Robots developed through remote imaging technology, such as the now famous Double, fix an iPad on the roller walking robot, and the user's current image will be displayed in the iPad. Even if the user is in the office, he can appear anywhere on the earth and remotely control his walking and sight. Users control networked robots by operating matching applications. As a puppet of the user in another place, the robot can perform many operations. For example, it appears as a user's avatar in a meeting and can perform functions such as walking and rotating. When the user wants to turn to others in the meeting, he can control the double robot to turn around and see the performance of others just like himself.

4. Smart glasses

Maybe many people haven't figured out what Google Glass is. Some people may still remember the smart glasses conference held by Google 20 13 and think that "well, Google Glass is similar to ar". Actually, it's not. Smart glasses are actually a display screen in front of us. In other words, we can understand it as an enhanced version of pilot/driver glasses. On this display screen, data, map information and other materials can be projected for users to use and view. In the current field of smart glasses, the current display screen only covers the right eye.

Many people confuse Google Glass with ar technology, because the demo video released by Google is shot from the user's first perspective, which gives people a feeling very similar to AR-virtual information and data appear in the real world. In fact, products such as Google Glass did not launch and invent any AR-type scenes in the real world, but only put information on the display screen of glasses. In other words, Google Glass is like the glasses version of Apple Watch, but the latter works on the wrist, that's all.

If Google Glass doesn't make people feel that it can change their lives, it may be because this product has not been commercialized. Although this pair of glasses has not yet entered the general consumer market, it can still provide great help to professionals in some special types of work. This is also the goal that Google hopes that Google Glass can achieve-it can help users directly view some important materials when they can't open their hands. This function is particularly useful in some situations, such as surgery, building construction, airplane driving and so on.

Google Glass still occupies the king position in the similar market, but it is worth pointing out that there are two main problems facing the smart glasses market at present: First, in the face of the ordinary consumer market, there is no killer App in smart glasses such as Google Glass, which cannot really capture the hearts of consumers; Secondly, the current smart glasses products are difficult to stimulate consumers' desire to buy from the appearance.

5. Video player

Some people may know Avegant Glyph, which looks a bit like a VR helmet, but functionally, it is just a high-tech way to watch movies or videos. This kind of video playback equipment is not fashionable. As early as 20 12, similar products have appeared on the market, such as Sony HMZ-T 1 private 3D player and Zeiss Cinemizer organic light-emitting diode player.

When using Glyph, the user must first connect the HDMI interface on the helmet with the computer equipment. Then the 3D video content will be played in the helmet. In addition, it can really provide users with 3D panoramic 360 videos and games, and can control devices such as drones. However, since the development of such devices, the product functions are very limited compared with VR helmets.

With the continuous maturity of AR and VR technologies, more and more real scenes and virtual scenes begin to merge. In the future, we will be able to see more scenes using these two technologies. We have analyzed and compared the differences between VR technology and other technologies in detail. Nevertheless, we can foresee that many people will still call these technologies "virtual reality" in the future. Bian Xiao hopes that through this article, everyone can see behind some fancy gimmicks and product promotion and understand the essence of this technology.