Volumetric video will immerse viewers in a scene

Thanks to Intel’s #CES2017 VR presentation and HypeVR, the walk-around is now possible inside a video. Just like someone would actually walk through a real world or a virtual world inside a game.

Technical challenge and how do they do it?

It makes sure that every pixel that you see is mapped in space to make you see things so real and you feel you are actually there through a superior computing prowess that Intel is promising through their hardware.

This requires a huge computing challenge. But I guess that could be taken care of in the coming years with more and more development in GPU and CPU computing enhancements.

Immersive Movie experience and possibilities

This style of content will make sure more immersion to the viewers or users of VR headsets. Walk-around and tourist destinations is what this is targeted towards now. But imagine if this is part of a movie experience.

Be right there in the action! Imagine walking along with the protagonist of a film …. walking through the streams and fountains and getting to have a parallel story of your own that your mind makes along with seeing the film. Get into a fantasy dream sequence of the character and dive into a space not bound by boundaries.

By taking part in the action sequence… being part of an immersive sequence where actor punches a villain and the viewer is there right next to the face or in the middle of the action would provide so much more in terms of immersive feedback.

Dance and run and jump around with the Avengers and Batman or for that matter even fly around skyscrapers with Spider-man and fly out of space with Superman. Go near and see in detail how Iron man suits open and close and assemble itself around Tony Stark.

The above are just few examples. There could be more advanced things that could be done in the future. e.g. Allow the scent or breeze of the scene also to be felt so that sense of smell also could be used to accentuate the scene or effect that the viewer has while watching something. Give a sense of collision through vibration feedback build into the device or headset.

Thus making the entire scene not just believable but it will inspire film makers to try out different and innovative story-telling techniques in films that is produced. And who knows, just like we have separate Blu-Ray versions of the movies produced, we might see VR or AR versions of the movies being produced only to be consumed using appropriate hardware. Something that you cannot experience in a normal TV or even in a cinema hall.

Real world work scenarios

Pipeline, tower, building inspections. All human interventions where the job is risky in the real world. Time consuming and technically not great in some geographical locations. This is better than drones in some respect as this presents LIVE feeds of locations with accurate physical spatial movements and thus helps people to micromanage remote operations more easily.

Very dangerous locations in the world like Mining where 1000s of people lose their lives every year or underground tunnel drillers. People often die of depleted oxygen levels and landslides. This requires a huge amount of intervention that can be done using an immersive 360 degree volumetric video seen through the managers and experts.