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Creating a 360 Panorama with the LG 360 Camera

Testing a 360 panorama with Cardboard

I’ve long been fascinated with immersive photography such as 360°  panoramas, videos, virtual reality and photo spheres. I backed the Dot project on Kickstarter back in 2011, and they actually created a cool accessory for the iPhone 4 (at the time, the latest-and-greatest) that recorded 360° video.

Now, it’s pretty easy to create immersive photo spheres using an iPhone and the free Google Streetview app. It does a decent job with the camera in your pocket (i.e. your phone), helping you create all the images you’ll need for the app to automagically stitch together a spherical image. The resulting image can be uploaded to the Google Streetview database or shared on Facebook, which should recognize it as a photo sphere and display it accordingly. When it doesn’t work properly, you’ll end up with a funny looking distorted image like the one at the top of this post.

Enter the 360° Cameras

360° cameras used to be really expensive, but I recently picked up an LG 360 camera for $200. This camera has two 13 megapixel spherical cameras on either side, allowing you to take 180° or 360° still photos and video.

Here’s a quick-and-dirty example I shot from our apartment in Seoul. Go ahead…click on it and drag your mouse around to change the view.

The LG 360 connects with my iPhone using wifi, allowing me to preview the shot and transfer photos and videos to my phone. You can use either the Google Streetview app or LG’s 360 CAM app to record.

Sharing 360° Photos and Videos

Sharing the resulting photos and videos can be tricky. You can upload the 360° video to YouTube and it should detect the photosphere and automatically present it with user controls. If a viewer is looking at it on their phone with the YouTube app, it will utilize the gyroscope to allow you to turn left/right/up/down to “look” around the video.

Sharing on Facebook works much the same. Just upload the photo or video like you would a regular photo or video, then cross your fingers. Facebook should detect the spherical image and display it correctly. I found that it doesn’t work 100% of the time.

Displaying it on a WordPress blog is a bit trickier. For videos, the easy button is to share on YouTube, then share the URL. WordPress will automatically convert it to an embedded video with the appropriate controls. For images, the easiest solution I’ve found — and what I’m using for the example above — is the VR Views Jetpack plug-in. Upload your image to the Media Gallery and use a shortcode to insert the image where you want.

Application of 360° Imagery

I see a lot of potential for immersive photography and videography, particularly for sites where sharing the big picture is really useful. For example, I can see real value on my hiking site to show all angles of a tricky trail junction, or to give someone an inspiring view from the summit. On a travel site, you can help readers find that hole-in-the-wall joint that only locals know about, or give them a better sense of what a place is actually like.

What are your thoughts about 360° imagery? Where would you like to see it used?

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November, Movember, Knowvember: Day 1

November is an extremely busy month for me, for a variety of reasons. Here are just two:

Knowvember is an annual celebration at work with employee recognition through the KM Pacesetter Awards, the annual KM Success Story contest, and coordinating workshops with KM Champions in offices on six continents. This week I wrapped up four “train-the-trainer” sessions and over the next four weeks will be presenting this year’s message at a number of offices (including Mumbai). This program is in it’s 11th year, and it while you might think it would get easier, the reality is that you are constantly raising the bar and expecting something more… something innovative… something new. This year, that’s involved a lot of work on recorded screencasts. It’s the closest thing to being in two (or twenty) places at once.

Yikes! No beard!

Movember, on the other hand, is a lighthearted way to raise awareness for some serious men’s health issues. This annual awareness campaign involves men shaving their faces completely clean — no beard or mustache — and then proceeding to grow and groom a mustache — and only a mustache — over the remainder of the month.

For those men who normally wear their face clean-shaven, Movember is a bit of a lark. For me, it means shaving off the mustache and goatee that my wife has never seen me without. Needless to say, it’s a different look.

All this silliness serves a more serious purpose, and you can join in. Show your support for men’s health by spreading the word. And consider making a contribution. The funds go to several groups that raise awareness and provide research on testicular and prostate cancers.

Men, be sure you’ve scheduled an annual physical. Ladies, show your love and nudge them to get checked.

 

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Why I Love San Clemente

There are a million reasons to love San Clemente — my home for the past two years. I love my neighbors, and enjoy sipping wine on the patio while we catch up. I love that I can walk down the street to the beach, or to a number of great restaurants, or hear live music on the weekends. I can walk to the pier, or wander through the shops on Del Mar or the Farmers Market on Sunday morning. I love the diversity of the neighborhood and the laid back surfer vibe.

But today I’m reminded of one of my favorite reasons to love San Clemente.

Today we had a special vote — Measure A — on whether to permit a developer to build approximately 50,000 square feet of shops near North Beach. The developer has a track record of creating innovative, green projects such as The Camp and The Lab in Costa Mesa — a fitting match for the culture of San Clemente.

Measure A has polarized the community. While some see this as a negative, I see it as a positive sign. Whether people are for or against the proposed development, they all love San Clemente passionately, and want to do what they believe will help nurture the special quality that makes our town so unique.

The very fact that people are passionate about both sides of the issue is precisely why I love San Clemente. The people here love their city. We love our city. There’s no room for apathy where passion rules.

UPDATE: According to the San Clemente Patch, Measure A was voted down, so the development will not go forward.

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Google Teleporter Allows Man to Revisit Childhood

Google Teleporter isn’t a real product…yet! But I was able to use Google Streetview to take me back to a childhood home, and it felt pretty amazing. Sure, the Streetview feature isn’t anything new, but once in a while I’m surprised by it’s reach and ability to intersect with my own life.

Here’s an example

I’ve been slowly working my way through a huge box of old photos from my grandma’s house, scanning a few each weekend and posting them on a family photo archive. I’m using MailChimp (free up to 2,000 subscribers) to notify subscribed family members and friends when fresh scans go online, and they help fill in the details; places, people, dates and even the backstory. It’s been a wonderful way to honor my grandparents and keep their memory alive.

When I was in elementary school, I lived on a tree-lined street called Middlebrook Ave. in Cincinnati, Ohio. One of the scans last weekend was of that very house.

That’s my first bike there on the right. Metallic green with a banana seat, a sissy bar and flared chrome fenders. Sweet.

I have a lot of fond memories of this home. My best friend — Howard Lee — lived in the house next door. Every summer, all the neighbors held a huge block party with grilled hot dogs, burgers, sodas and games. And the neighbors even put up a volleyball net across the street for impromptu games during the summer.

I also remember going to the YMCA on Saturday mornings, taking swimming lessons (hated them) and a whole range of other classes. They had a BB gun shooting range, archery, trampolines, a chemistry class (Kids with bunsen burners? Really?) and my personal favorite, the magic class. Yes, the class was led by a magician and every week he’d teach us a new trick. I parlayed that newfound skill into an obsession, and was performing at birthday parties, school and even the fair. But that’s a story for another day…

Back to the house on Middlebrook, and Google Teleporter –er– Street View. I was wondering if the house was even still there. Just for kicks, I pulled up the house in Google Street View. Here’s what it looks like today:

The bike is gone, but the house looks pretty much the same. Ah, the magic of technology!

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Visual changes in WordPress 2.7 revealed

A few days ago, the WordPress blog unveiled the visual design of the upcoming WordPress 2.7 expected to be released in a few weeks. While this won’t offer dramatic changes to readers of this or any other WordPress-powered blog, it offers some really nice improvements for those of us who publish a blog. 

Here’s a preview of the new dashboard:

The new dashboard is really a great improvement, with at-a-glance views of the stats effecting your blog. I also like the “quick post” feature and the ability to reply directly to comments. An already amazing product is getting even better.