8i announced today that it has created volumetric 3D video of people in virtual reality. This means you’ll be able to see a person inside a virtual environment using VR goggles. And you’ll be able to walk around them and see the entire person.
The Wellington, New Zealand-based startup said its VR platform will people to see fully volumetric 3D video.
Previously, VR cameras could record a partial torso of a person. It enables “complete freedom of movement,” and it gives you a complete sense of “presence,” or the feeling that you are there in the virtual space with the person. It creates a more “emotional connection with the person you are watching,” the company said in the video below.
8i’s platform will let you create, experience and share immersive 3D video of real people — for virtual reality, augmented reality and the web. I’m not sure how it can be used for games, but you can see how it could give you a unique perspective at a music concert or theatrical performance.
Linc Gasking, who previously ran countingdown.com (which DreamWorks acquired), and Eugene d’Eon, formerly of Weta Digital and Nvidia, founded the startup in 2014.
To date, 8i has raised $14.8 million in funding from investors including: RRE Ventures, Founders Fund Science, Horizons Ventures, Samsung Ventures, Dolby Family Ventures, Signia Ventures Partners, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, Sound Ventures, Inevitable Ventures, Freelands, and Advancit Capital
While traditional approaches to VR content turn cameras outward, 8i turns the cameras inward. 8i uses off-the-shelf high-definition cameras to record video of a real person from various viewpoints. Then it uses its own software to capture, analyze, compress, and recreate in real-time all the viewpoints of a fully volumetric 3D human.
8i recently started a studio in Culver City, California, and invited content creators to figure out how to create volumetric 3D video.