Ricoh has provided funding for one of its design teams to create a wand-like 360-degree immersive video stick, and has even launched a new company to sell it. The Vecnos camera will be available later this year.
Looking a bit like a prop from Men in Black, the Vecnos 360-degree camera is designed to make immersive memories, not erase them. It's been created by the same core team responsible for Ricoh's original Theta devices launched in 2013. The latest flagship Theta – the Z1 – packed a 1-inch CMOS image sensor capable of 23-megapixel stills and 4K video, and image stabilization, into its slender frame.
Not a great deal has been revealed about the 360-degree photography and movie-making chops of the upcoming Vecnos camera, but it will sport three lenses on the sides and one more up top and has been designed so that users can easily share captured images and video on social media.
The slender, pen-like camera will wirelessly connect with a smartphone running a proprietary app that will stitch content together into a seamless visual experience, and offers one button operation. It can also be mounted to a stand for placement on a table, wall or even on the floor.
"Enabled by advances in technology, combined with new social networking platforms, we are building a new generation of cameras, with our first product designed to reinvent the selfie and be used by a younger consumer," said Vecnos CEO Hidenao "Shu" Ubukata. "Our objectives are to combine ease of use with advanced capabilities for shooting, enhancing and sharing images, in beautiful and elegantly designed products that people will want to use. We aim to inspire a new generation."
It will be the first product in a range of new specialized cameras, software and apps produced by the spinoff Ricoh team, and will be released later this year. The video below has more.
Source: Vecnos