Have you ever seen one of these, son? Ricoh spins off 360° camera boffins to debut neuralyzer-shaped snapper

Japanese imaging specialist Ricoh has spun off its 360° camera team into a new company called Vecnos. The new outfit, which boasts the same core team behind the Ricoh Theta 360 camera line, already has a first product in the works: a pen-shaped 360° camera that looks a bit like the neuralyzer from Men In Black. Details are …

[ducatis'r us]

Prosumer ??

“it quietly spins a brisk trade in prosumer digital cameras.” Last time I checked Ricoh an obscure little “prosumer” brand called Pentax.

[Andrew Newstead]

Re: Prosumer ??

Not so prosumer, their high end DSLRs are as good as anything from Canon and Nikon and their lenses are superb.

[Antron Argaiv]

Re: Prosumer ??

DSLRs...pah!

I remember when Honeywell owned Pentax :-)

// Nikon F3 in the pocket, TYVM

[Anonymous Coward]

HEY! that was my idea! :O

well, my idea was to put a 360 degree camera on a drone and stream back a gyro-corrected photosphere so no matter how crazy you flew it you could look around you and see EVERYWHERE at once and it would keep up UP and so you could fly it from VR and literally control it by being all flight-of-the-navigator with hand gestures and stuff.

[Baldrickk]

You'd be better off with two 180s, one for above the drone, and one under.

Streaming all that data in real-time might be a challenge.

[Anonymous Coward]

I've got a jetson nano and a couple mipi cams, literally just have to strap it to a drone now and figure out how to do the cuda stuff to seamlessly make a photosphere then gstreamer nvenc encode it and spurt it out through wifi packets along with what the ims things is the up vector and it's almost DONE!

[hplasm]

"I've got a jetson nano..."

Too much info!

I have an idea- the next big thing! Stuff! Nonsense! Nano! Cyber!

Give me tons of cash.

Ta

<Ha! that's how you do it>

[Anonymous Coward]

More tat for the bottom drawer

Buy today

Junk tomorrow.

[Blackjack]

Do you want a phone camera on a stick?

Here you go!

[BebopWeBop]

Re: Do you want a phone camera on a stick?

Ricoh is an extremely good camera sales company. They have to be, given the nature of their cameras.

[Blackjack]

Re: Do you want a phone camera on a stick?

That doesn't stop this thing from being an inferior 360 camera on a stick.

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-360-cameras,review-3737.html

Yes Tomsguide sucks but whatever.

[BebopWeBop]

Re: Do you want a phone camera on a stick?

True, but I was a little disappointed that my reply on a 'Dibbler variant' to the original poster was not apprecoeated (weep weep)

[Twanky]

slim, pen-sized package

Damned big pen. Reminds me of a freebie laser pointer/USB stick/pen I got years ago from the CheckPoint stand at a tech show - back in the day when handing out free USB sticks wasn't seen as so much of a security nightmare. Must dig that out again; I kept it because it was so... useful.

[Tom 35]

Re: slim, pen-sized package

Maybe this is his pen.

https://www.amazon.ca/Ballpoint-Multicolor-Retractable-Smooth-Writing/dp/B07GK6QGX3/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=EFUSofficeproducts081706&qid=1583943442&sr=8-1

[Sandy Scott]

360 video support not needed for this to be useful!

" ...most social media sites don't support the kind of immersive footage Vecnos's gear will ultimately produce."

That isn't the point - the benefit of a 360 camera is you can do stupid things with it, with with moving any way you like, then create a stable video feed from it afterwards. Most of the drops that the How Ridiculous crew do are accompanied by a 360 camera on a tether, so the virtual camera can track whatever it needs to. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5f5IV0Bf79YLp_p9nfInRA

[John Robson]

Re: 360 video support not needed for this to be useful!

A couple of 360 dash cams would be useful as well, none of that blindspot irritation you get with a normal dashcam (how do you see the lorry turn into you from the side)?

[Sgt_Oddball]

I was thinking...

It looked like something else... Something the wife would keep in the bedside table kind of thing. Would give a fascinating view but it doesn't mention if it's waterproof which might scupper things.

Mines the dirty mac with the Japanese specialist interests book in the pocket.

[a pressbutton]

Re: I was thinking...

From memory, having a dog (for the sake of clarity golden retriever etc) was a minority specialist interest in the Tokyo suburbs.

No need for the mac - apart from when it is raining.

[hplasm]

Re: I was thinking...

"From memory, having a dog"

I remember having a dog too!

Perhaps the Ricoh Neuraliser wears off after a while?

<Let's go dogging on the Downs...la la la>

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I was thinking...

I can see an awful lot of boat enthusiasts wanting something like that for a masthead camera.

The biggest problem is finding the 360 degree monitor to show the pictures.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I was thinking...

Until the gull lands. Well, possibly until it takes off.

[FrogsAndChips]

"one has to ask: what's the point?"

Is that really a question to ask when talking about social media usage?

[ma1010]

One obvious purpose

With 360 degree coverage, every picture you take will be a "selfie," a real boon for those people who are addicted to taking pictures of themselves.

[glococo]

I don't see any big improvement 5 years later than Xiaomi MiSphere360.

Time will tell

[Clunking Fist]

Blockchain

"Vecnos also waxed lyrical about AI enhancements while not really explaining how these will work."

Pfft, my MiCam360°SuperPro utilises blockchain.