StreetView goes indoors
Measuring 110x110x140mm, the four sensor remote-controlled camera (via a smartphone or tablet) captures 8K resolution, HDR panoramic images (360°x275° +/- 5°), fully stitched and ready to be for shared on Google, Facebook or any other social media platform or website, within less than two minutes.
To achieve this, the WiFi-enabled camera module integrates a GPS for the coordinates, tilt and roll, and compass sensors for orientation and image level compensation together with a GPU that performs for all the necessary image processing on-board.
For the best results, the iris360 calculates the distances to object across the entire scene around the camera and uses these calculations to determine how to best process each image and execute the spherical stitching. Relying on the company’s proprietary 3D modelling, the GPU also performs parallax correction between the lenses to improve stitching quality.
Available for pre-orders at USD 1,999, NCTech’s selling argument, on top of the still image quality, is that anyone could now shoot and upload a full street’s worth of business interiors in a single day.
But aren’t there already a plethora of cheap 360º cameras around to do the job?
Of course, you could use alternative solutions, admits Cameron Ure, NCTech’s co-founder and CEO, but the images are not of the same professional-grade quality, he argues. Today, getting high quality 360º still shots would normally require a photographer to take several pictures high-resolution pictures in a circle and use complex software to merge them. This post-processing on off–site desktop software can take days.
What’s more, iris360 is fully integrated to allow users to control the camera and upload panoramic photos directly from the Google Maps and Street View apps, making it easier and faster for businesses to show up with virtual indoor tours on Google search results.
NCTech sells the cameras and Google signs the advertising deals. People’s faces blurring for privacy still has to be performed manually and approved according to Google’s guidelines before publishing the shots online.
The Google-approved camera is having some success, with more than 2,000 business images already captured, purchased and uploaded into Google Views within three months of trial (using only three cameras), according to NCTech’s co-founder and CTO Neil Tocher.
Although it didn’t want to share more details about its product roadmap, the company is also closely watching the 360º video camera market.
“We know how to do high resolution 360º video recordings, in fact, we have other products that can record up to 25 images per second, but it’s a different animal”, told us Tocher.
Visit NCTech at www.nctechimaging.com
More about Indoor Street View at https://indoorstreetview.com
Related articles:
Parrot takes instant 3D mapping to the sky
Who owns the space above your garden?
Catcher drones to geo-fence industrial sites
Successful with phones & drones, Parrot ponders farming
If you enjoyed this article, you will like the following ones: don't miss them by subscribing to :
