bullettime
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Insta360 One is a 4K 360 camera with smart tricks
For those who haven't been following, earlier Insta360 released a montage of cool sample clips to tease its upcoming camera's bullet-time video capability. What baffled me at the time was how those slow-motion shots orbited around a person with his upright arm seemingly holding onto something, except there was no visible string nor selfie stick to suggest that the camera was being swung around. Well, as it turns out, I was wrong, but there's no need to be disappointed -- it actually takes a lot more than just a piece of string to achieve this bullet-time effect.
Intel buys a 360-degree sports video replay specialist
Intel is already into camera technology with RealSense, but it just took a big leap into sports entertainment by acquiring Replay Technologies. That's the company behind the crazy 360-degree freeD video used during the slam-dunk competition at this year's NBA All-Star games (see the video, below). The system can freeze action from any angle then rotate all around it, much like the bullet-time effect used in the Matrix. Intel's grand idea is to it to create "a new category for sports entertainment that we call immersive sports, which is attracting the attention of leagues, venues, broadcasters and fans," according to its blog.
Experience bullet time in Epic's crazy VR demo
Game-tech powerhouse Epic Games and its Unreal Engine are capable of some seriously impressive stuff, and now the North Carolina-based outfit wants you to experience what it's capable of in the virtual reality space. "Showdown" is the demo that the outfit's been showing off at industry events for the past year or so (I got to try it at CES back in January) and it's by far the most bad-ass bullet-time walk toward a hulking, missile-happy, bipedal robot I've ever experienced. The path is predetermined, sure, but as the street explodes into chaos around you, it's entirely possible to duck down or peer around objects like pop cans or even cars as they hurtle toward you in slow motion.
Visualized: Qualcomm takes the red pill, uses 130 HTC Ones to capture slo-mo Matrix moves
Don't lie: we know that at least once in the last fourteen years, each and every one of you have pretended you were in the middle of an action scene from The Matrix -- y'know, the slo-mo "bullet time" pan shots that circle around Neo as he fights Agent Smith. Even if you can't bring yourself to admit it, our friends at Qualcomm seem especially inspired by this cinematic effect; enough, at least, to collaborate with HTC to create the "Snapdragon Ultimate Photo Booth." This rig, which is a result of daisy-chaining 130 One devices together, is meant to showcase the power of Qualcomm's SoCs to mimic the sci-fi masterpiece. While bullet time is now frequently used in today's movies, it's not every day that we get to see the concept recreated using nothing but smartphones. Check out the minute-long video below, which features break dancers, fire breathers and plenty of other creative ideas.
Nokia goes bullet time on snowboarders, the '90s wants its culture back (video)
Nokia's been an annual fixture at the Open Snowboarding Championships for a few years. While one gets sponsorship dollars, the other gleans a slice of snow sport cool. At this year's event, Nokia rigged up 18 Lumia 800s to capture the snowboarders' mid-air posturing, recording the video with a specially developed app. After a WiFi hook-up (and presumably a little bit of editing), the result was the montage you can see up top, made from around 100 different videos. But where's the iShred?
Nikon WT-5 WiFi dongle wins FCC approval, fires off a ring of D4s to celebrate
Okay, so Bullet Time actually used Canon cameras, but Nikon D4 owners should soon have their own means of messing with space and time. The WT-5 dongle can control up to ten of the mammoth DSLRs simultaneously or, in more usual set-ups, allow a single camera to share its shots over a network. This'll mean you're no longer tied down by the Ethernet cable that we were forced to use in our recent networking hands-on with the D4. We don't know if this will arrive in stores at the same time as the camera itself, or how much it'll cost, but at least it's now passed through FCC without getting shot down. Click past the break for a few product shots, and note that the status LED glows solid green when there's a network connection, flashes to indicate a transfer in progress, and radiates nasty orange to inform your lead actor that he'll have to bend over backwards for yet another take.
