Meet Orbi Inc, a new start-up from Berkely, California that has taken a new type of video glasses to IndieGoGo. The Orbi Prime, as it is called, has four FHD cameras with no direct display to see the recorded video but a wireless connection to share the recording instantly with a smartphone or other mobile device. The most interesting part of this new device is the location of the cameras.
They sit at the corners of an almost ordinary pair of plastic sunglasses, with each covering about 90º of field of view. With stitching software provided by Orbi, users can create 360º videos without using their hands. This makes the device ideal for sport enthusiasts that like sharing the whole experience.
Source: Orbi Inc.
From a user perspective, this takes the GoPro idea to the next level. The glasses offer up to 90 minutes of recording with two included batteries and a micro USB port for charging. The device is water resistant, lightweight (157g) and designed to fit sports helmets. All in all, it’s a very interesting package. There is no obvious way to directly interact with the Orbi Prime. Maybe the interaction is via ones smartphone but they have not mentioned it so far. The minimalistic approach to the hardware allows for the light weight and acquiring 360º video without any complex set up.
Since the cameras are sitting in the four corners of the glasses, they each cover a FoV of 160 x 110 degree (portrait orientation) and one has to be careful that the hair is not covering any lenses. They also provide the software for stitching the four video frames together to create a 360º video. Short video up to 15 min can be stitched and shared via smartphone.
Source: Orbi Inc.
The device will have up to 128GB of storage on board and polarized adaptive lenses to provide sunglass functionality. The frame rate is limited to 30fps, which seems a little low especially for some sport videos.
Orbi reached their funding goal within a week and are well above their goal by now. The device will sell for $499, with some early bird deals still available. Expected shipping date is August 2017.
Analyst Comment
This is a very interesting approach considering that the main criticism of Google Glass were The privacy concerns of other people meeting the people with video glasses. Orbi seems to be betting that the unique features such as 360º video and the interest from sports enthusiasts will be enough to make their product a success. This is not so far fetched, as many would have not given the GoPro concept a second thought in comparison to a Sony or Canon camcorder at the time of release. GoPro is quite successful and YouTube is filled with GoPro videos.
There is also the question of the UHD claim. Orbi states that the device will capture in UHD/4K. They actually state that the device can create 3840×2160 stitched video. Since they have their 1920×1080 stitched in portrait mode, this would result in a 4320×1920 format without any loss for the stitching step. One would expect a little lower resolution from the stitching process though. This is close to the UHD format they mention, but not exactly the same. They have to reformat the content to achieve UHD specs and will still fall short of the UHD specification in respects such as 60 fps, for example. Also, the UHD resolution is achieved for a 360º video and will result in a different image quality and perceived resolution as a real UHD 4K camera with a normal lens. If the 4K camera has a 90º FoV the perceived resolution would be four times that of the Orbi Prime.
From some of the provided video there is quite a bit of distortion towards the upper end (overhead) of the image, which could be stemming from the stitching software or the lenses. Still this is quite impressive for such a small and relatively simple device. (NH)
