HN Explorer

Show HN: I invented, built, and released a 360º Video Camera.

18 points by nakedrobot2 ↗ HN
Greetings, HN!

I have created a new kind of 360º video camera with GPS and live streaming capabilities. A device like this has never existed in this form factor or price point before.

After launching on Kickstarter, it has gotten coverage in Techcrunch and Boingboing, and received 89% funding in the first 24 hours.

I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts about the device, the Kickstarter campaign, and any ways of publicizing the campaign that I might be missing. I'm most interested in hearing anyone thoughts about how the Kickstarter page might be improved to boost conversions, as the clock is ticking.... Thank you!

Here is the link to Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1996234044/sphericam-the-easy-360o-video-camera

4 comments

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bdwalter
Interesting, these guys have been building 360 cameras for years, but in a clearly different space.

http://www.imoveinc.com/geoview.php

nakedrobot2
Hi bdwalter. Yes there are a number of companies in the military space making 360º cameras. Generally these are built for a different use case and often cost 10-100x what Sphericam costs. This is generally the rule with medical and military equipment - it needs to be "overengineered" to withstand exceptionally demanding environments without fail because lives may be on the line (99.9999 vs. 99.9 uptime, and all that). Not to say that Sphericam isn't built to take a beating - it is - but I wouldn't yet want to make the kind of guarantees required to sell it as a military solution. Not this iteration, anyway - a ruggedized (throwable! flying! lasers!) version is certainly doable in the future!
artursapek
This video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07YMliQ4iqE is some of the weirdest cinematography I've ever seen.
nakedrobot2
Thank you :-) I was excited to fly Sphericam on a strong octocopter flown by a couple of very skilled operators. It was a lucky event.

This video shows the spherical image with a rather different geometry than we are used to - it's called "stereographic" projection (not to be confused with "stereoscopic" wich is the quasi-3d effect in Avatar for example)

It's sometimes easier to see a world map in these projections to understand it better. Here: https://www.google.com/search?num=10&hl=en&site=imgh...