The Galaxy S7 is being announced later this month, but it’s not the only thing that Samsung will be showing off at their Barcelona event. According to SamMobile, the company is also planning to unveil a new 360° camera called the Gear 360, designed to shoot video to be played back on VR headsets.
At the moment 360° recording for virtual reality is largely the domain of professional equipment, but there’s no reason that it couldn’t be brought to consumers at a lower price point using cheap smartphone components — and that’s exactly what Samsung have done with the Gear 360.
Above: Samsung’s last prototype 360° camera, ‘Project Beyond’.
According to reports, The Gear 360 camera is a portable spherical camera, capable of recording video for hours using its own internal battery. The camera uses a pair of 180° fisheye lenses to capture a full 360° field of view, with a heavy dose of software correction to produce a realistic image. The Gear 360 will connect to compatible handsets (e.g. the Galaxy S7) remotely, likely using Bluetooth or Wi-Fi direct, with the potential for both recording and live streaming.
If Samsung can make their camera easy to use and reasonably affordable, then the Gear 360 could be a big hit with early VR adopters, like those that picked up Samsung’s excellent Gear VR headset. Imagine visiting a foreign country with the Gear 360 camera, then showing your friends and family what you were up to with a VR headset — pretty cool stuff!
We’ll know more about the Gear 360 at Samsung’s Unpacked event on February 21st, so stay tuned!