Virtual reality is transforming our lives in ways that we can’t even comprehend yet. Experiencing things that would otherwise be unreachable, has been made possible with the advent of VR. SpaceVR is taking the whole experience thing to the next level by sending a virtual reality camera into space to bring some immersive experience back home for the masses.
The company’s plan at present involves creating and sending cameras into space with the intent of creating realistic space footage. It then plans to use the same to create immersive VR experiences for the general public — to be distributed through different channels and made available through a slew of different VR headsets. The company’s flagship product which will actually make this dream come about is a “thermos-sized” device, that has 4 cameras at each of its ends.
SpaceVR plans to send this camera to space in August, abroad one of SpaceX rockets. Once there, it will record about 2-3 hours of footage over the course of a month. This will continue for about 9 months, at the end of which the camera will fall back to the earth and burn up in space. However, all the footage that has been collected by it will by then have been transmitted back to earth X and S band microwave radio transmissions.
As far as where the money involved in the project is coming from, well, SpaceVR does have a kickstarter. However, that has managed to raise only a fraction of what hitching a ride with one of SpaceX rockets will entail. The company had foreseen this and has already prepared just such a contingency. SpaceVR raised $1.25 million from China’s Shanda Group last year. It very recently raised some more funds from HTC Vive’s VR for Impact fund.
Speaking on the topic with Mashable, SpaceVR’s CEO, Ryan Holmes said:
I saw what happened to the astronauts after that experience. I saw them as being much better people, much more connected to other people [as a result of] seeing our place in the universe. I realized that once that happens to everyone, we’ll fundamentally live in a different world as a species, because we’ll all think differently. My goal is to catalyze that [astronaut experience] by sending this VR camera into space so people can really see what it’s like.
SpaceVR will actually be bringing disruption to immersion technology with this. Most of the other companies working in the field are creating immersive experience by coding it. However, SpaceVR will be putting the ‘R’ in reality when it sends its camera to space in August. SpaceVR plans to use the clip it obtains through this venture by distributing them near the year end through various VR headsets including the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift.
