Nokia sold off its smartphone business. And while it brought absolutely nothing to Microsoft except for job cuts and an ultimate write-down, looks like Nokia has started to concentrate on more futuristic businesses. An example of that, is the just announced OZO VR Filming headset, which is indeed, the most advanced VR film-making headset yet.
Virtual Realty, probably a nascent market right now, has seen surging growth. GoPro came up with its 16-camera rig designed to be used with Google Jump. Jump, announced at the Google I/O developer conference, intends to be a full-featured ecosystem for VR filmmaking. Samsung too is building a VR filming rig.
And OZO isn’t just one standalone product. As Nokia puts it,
Ozo is the first commercially available virtual reality (VR) camera designed and built for professional content creators and the first in a planned portfolio of digital media solutions from Nokia Technologies, the company’s advanced technology and licensing business.
Conceived at the company’s R&D facilities in Tampere, Finland, OZO made its first appearance at an industry event in Los Angeles attended by representatives from major studios, production houses and media and technology companies.
Nokia says that it will conduct final testing and refinements to OZO in partnership with industry professionals, in advance of the product’s commercial release. Final pricing and full technical specifications will be announced at a future date, with shipments anticipated in Q4 2015. OZO will be manufactured in Finland.
OZO captures stereoscopic 3D video through eight (8) synchronized global shutter sensors and spatial audio through eight (8) integrated microphones. Software built for OZO enables real-time 3D viewing, with an innovative playback solution that removes the need to pre-assemble a panoramic image - a time-consuming process with solutions currently in the marketplace.
OZO’s filmed content can be published for commercially available VR viewing hardware such as head mounted displays (HMDs), with immersive, full 360-degree imaging and spatially accurate original sound. OZO also integrates into existing professional workflows and works with third-party tools, dramatically simplifying content production at all stages.
As a part of this announcement, Palo Alto-based VR production company Jaunt Inc. announced a commitment to support OZO, both by offering the camera for use in Jaunt Studios and by supporting content produced with OZO through its post-production services.
Nokia says that with OZO, the company aims to set ‘a new standard’ as the preferred method for professional capture, editing and playback of cinematic VR content.
