Facebook posts it's first 360-degree video with its Surround 360 camera

Back in April, Facebook announces its very own Surround 360 camera, one that is capable of capturing 360 video. Today, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted the social network’s first 360 video shot in New York’s Grand Central Terminal and it looks great.

Zuckerberg posted the 360 video overnight and described how the video was produced by the Facebook team itself without external help. “Check out this 360 video of Grand Central Terminal in New York City. It’s the first 360 video that we produced and filmed ourselves using our new Surround 360 camera. You can tilt your phone to experience different moments happening around you in the terminal. Turn up the sound to know where to look. It’s a preview of what a full-length virtual reality movie will feel like. Instead of watching the action, you’ll be right in the middle of it.” said the CEO. While we weren’t able to view the video on our computers, the same played smoothly over a 4G connection on both iOS and Android smartphones. Facebook’s 360 video support page mentions that the video is only supported by the latest version of Chrome and Firefox and not viewable on Safari or Internet Explorer. While camera delivered flawless video capture, this is indeed Facebook’s move for the VR space one that first started after it acquired Oculus. Announced at F8 this year, the Surround 360 camera features 17 cameras bolted to a saucer-shaped chassis (think UFOs). 14 wide-angle cameras are scattered around the chassis, a single fish-eye camera is placed on top and a couple of fish-eye cameras are placed at the bottom. The camera itself is a feat of engineering, but what’s more interesting is that the camera is going to be open-source and the design can be tweaked to your heart’s content. Pricing details aren’t very clear at the moment, but it’s expected to cost around $30,000 (around Rs 20,00,000) to build the device.