GoPro’s CEO Nick Woodman has announced that his company is making a new spherical camera mount which swallows six action cameras in order to record video footage for virtual reality experiences. GoPro is also making a drone, which it plans to sell in the first half of 2016.
Taking to the stage at Code Conference, reports Verge, Woodman explained that “when Facebook dropped the gauntlet and acquired Oculus, it sent a message that, OK there’s going to be heavy development and investment in virtual reality.” GoPro’s response is a spherical camera mount, shown just below, that houses six Hero4 cameras.
The cameras capture footage in all directions, and the video can then be knitted together using software made by Kolor, which GoPro purchased earlier this year. The resulting spherical footage could then be viewed in one of the now many VR headsets — Oculus Rift, Google Cardboard, Microsoft HoloLens, take your pick — or on web services like YouTube 360. Like this!
There’s no word on pricing yet, but Woodman claims the the mount will be available later this year. And at any rate, you’ll need six GoPros, so cost might not be your primary concern. (For what it’s worth, our very own Sean Hollister kind of called this announcement about a month ago.)
Verge also reports that Woodman explained at the same conference that GoPro plans to launch its own quadcopter in the first half of 2016. He didn’t reveal anything else about the device, but he did reiterate that GoPro is a “consumer focused company” so it seems likely that it will be at least vaguely affordable — perhaps think in the same price bracket at DJI.
Clearly GoPro is making every effort to provide the hardware with which adventurous folk can make increasingly immersive videos. At the very least, the YouTube videos will be worth the wait. [The Verge, The Verge]