360 Video

I have been interested in 360-degree cameras for a long time. Earlier this year, we published a paper at SMC comparing the image formats of four different 360-degree cameras (GoPro MAX, Insta360 X3, Garmin VIRB 360, and Ricoh Theta S). Now, we have just presented a follow-up study comparing the spatial audio of the same devices. While three of them claim to have spatial audio support (GoPro, Insta360, Garmin), this is only partially true. Only the GoPro camera exports Ambisonics files. As the anglegram below shows, this actually enables detection of horizontal (sonic) motion. ...

Over the years, I have used several different 360-degree video cameras. They all behave differently, which makes it difficult to work with files from different systems. For this year’s SMC conference, we decided to compare four cameras: GoPro MAX, Insta360 X3, Garmin VIRB 360 and Ricoh Theta S. As the table below shows, the features of the cameras vary quite a bit: Camera File type Projection Codec Colorspace Resolution FPS Bitrate (kb/s) GoPro MAX .360 Equi-Angular Cubemap H.265 yuvj420p 4096 x 2688 25 30,002 (x2) .LRV Dual-fisheye H.264 yuvj420p 1408 x 704 25 2,499 Insta360 X3 .INSV Fisheye (x2) H.264 yuvj420p 5760 x 2880 29.97 60,495 (x2) .LRV Dual-fisheye H.264 yuvj420p 1024 x 512 29.97 3,999 Garmin VIRB 360 .MP4 Equirectangular H.264 yuv420p 3840 x 2160 25 80,008 .LRV Equirectangular H.264 yuv420p 1280 x 720 25 5,026 Ricoh Theta S .MP4 Dual-fisheye H.264 yuvj420p 1920 x 1080 29.97 15,938 The biggest practical challenge, however, is that they all use different projections: ...

Today is New Year’s Eve, and I have done my 365th standstill of the year. I began my year-long #StillStanding project on 1 January this year, and I am happy to report that I managed to conclude the project as planned! A few days were more challenging than others, but I am pleased I made recordings every day. I wrote a blog post after the first 100 days and a video of the first half year. My reflections today are the same as in those summaries. Now, I am looking forward to writing everything up in my upcoming book, so I will be brief in this blog post. ...

Today, I am halfway through my year-long #StillStanding project. Not so much has changed since I summed up the first 100 days. I still enjoy the experience, and there are new things to learn every day. Here is a 10-minute video I have recorded that presents the project, explains its rationale, and reflects upon some experiences so far: The biggest challenge moving forward is finding new spaces every day. I have already stood in the most accessible spaces, so I need to spend more time looking for unexplored rooms both at the university and close to my home. Follow the project on Mastodon to see how it goes.

I use a GoPro Max 360-degree camera in my annual #StillStanding project. This has given me plenty of opportunities to work with GoPro files and explore their structure. Previously, I wrote about the various files generated when recording. In this post, I’ll focus on how keyframes work in GoPro Max recordings and how to extract keyframe information. What is a Keyframe? A keyframe (also known as an I-frame) is a frame in a video that contains a complete image, unlike other frames (P-frames and B-frames) that only store changes from previous or future frames. Keyframes are essential for video editing, seeking, and compression. ...

I use a GoPro Max 360-degree camera in my annual #StillStanding project. That means that I also have had an excellent chance to work with GoPro files and try to understand their inner logic. In this blog post, I will summarize some of my findings. What is recorded? Recording “a video” with a GoPro Max results in recording multiple files. For example, each of my daily 10-minute recordings ends up with something like this: ...

Today marks the 100th day of my annual #StillStanding project. In this blog post, I summarize some of my experiences so far. Endurance Some people questioned whether I would be able to stand still every single day for an entire year. But, hey, it is only ten minutes (out of 1440) per day, and even though my life as a centre director is busy, it is always possible to find time for a standstill sometime during the day. ...

For my annual Still Standing project, I am recording 360 videos with audio and sensor data while standing still for 10 minutes. I have started exploring how to visualize the sensor data best. Today, I am looking into visualization strategies for 360-degree images. I have written about how to pre-process 360-degree videos from Garmin VIRB and Ricoh Theta cameras previously. The Theta records in a dual fisheye format like this: ...

I use a GoPro Max 360-degree camera for my daily Still Standing recordings. Unfortunately, I discovered too late that the camera’s default 60fps setting can cause flickering issues with certain indoor lighting here in Norway, where our electrical system operates at 25 Hz. Fortunately, I found a solution to remove flickering due to artificial light using my favourite terminal tool FFmpeg. The technique works by averaging pixel values between the original frame and a slightly delayed copy, smoothing out flicker from artificial lighting. ...

Yesterday, I completed my 365 Sound Actions project, during which I recorded one sound action per day as part of preparing for the launch of my book Sound Actions. Today, on 1 January 2023, I start this year’s project: recording myself standing still 10 minutes every day. You can follow the progress on Mastodon. Starting up AMBIENT Although I am happy about completing my sound actions project, I have enjoyed the ritual of doing something every day. So I want to continue the tradition with a different project, and I have developed a concept that fits my current research interests. I am currently in the phase of starting up my AMBIENT project. The team is almost in place, and we have had many good initial discussions. ...