Basketball star Lebron James collaborated with Oculus, the company bought by Facebook, dedicated to create virtual reality (VR) content and gadgets such as the Oculus Rift, to create a VR film called “Striving for greatness: an uninterrupted original”, that features the basketball player in an immersive 360° view while he trains.
Lebron James is the youngest basketball player to achieve 25,000 career points. The 12-minute video can be downloaded uniquely to Samsung’s Gear VR headset since James allied with Oculus VR, which paid for the exclusive to produce the film for Samsung.
Besides featuring the basketball player in one his practice sessions, interviews with James and his trainer will be also shown. The piece is available in the Oculus Store and in the Milk VR app from Samsung.
Recently it was announced Warner Bros. Entertainment and Turner Sorts have invested $15.8 million in the Uninterrupted platform from the NBA athlete, which is specialized in offering athlete point-of-view content.
“The best thing about Uninterrupted is there are so many creative opportunities for athletes to tell their stories. I’m excited to be partnering with important, innovative companies like Warner Brothers and Turner to keep building Uninterrupted as a place for athletes to go to connect with fans and share their stories in a different way,” James said.
Oculus Rift, the virtual reality system that has generated more expectation among technology fans, that will permit users experience games, movies and other contents in 360°, will be available in the american market 2016. Other VR devices such as the Samsung Gear VR are already available and can be used to enjoy thousands of contents.
The evolution of the VR market
Last week it was announced Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) will offer 360 vídeo content directly in the customer’s rooms with the new integration of Littlstar on the Apple TV. The global network exclusively dedicated to offer video in 360 grades and virtual reality products said in a press release on Tuesday they were going to provide access to a wide catalog of 360 video content from well known brands.
The videos can be accessed from the Littlstar app where users can enjoy the immersive experience of content from brands such as Showtime, Disney, Discovery, PBS, Mountain Dew, National Geographic, Red Bull and the Wall Street Journal.
What seems more interesting about the app is that it functions with the new Siri Remote of the Apple TV, which permits users to control the different angles of videos using the remote’s trackpad. In other words, users are allowed to look around in 360 degree views while rotating the view with the remote.
A month before, Nokia Corporation announced the price of the spherical Ozo camera they presented in summer. The gadget which is dedicated to make 3D films and games that can be lived and explored with the popular virtual-reality headsets, will cost $60,000.
The OZO camera will be able to record stereoscopic 3D video and spacial audio through eight synchronized global shutter sensors and eight integrated microphones.
“We expect that virtual reality experiences will soon radically enhance the way people communicate and connect to stories, entertainment, world events and each other. With Ozo, we plan to be at the heart of this new world,” Rams Haidamus, president of Nokia Technologies said.
Source: TechCrunch