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Best camera for streaming into Vive headset?


BethMackey

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Hi,

I'm a final year robotics PhD student. I'm currently streaming the feed from a StereoLabs Zed 2 into my headset, but it looks like watching a screen and it just doesn't cut it. I've also tried a Ricoh Theta V 360 camera, but the resolution was just awful and induced motion sickness. I'm thinking a stereo 180 camera might be the way to go but i'm looking for some advice on which the best one might be. I have a modest research budget so can't afford that costs thousands and thousands.

Thanks in advance!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Please use google translate for future messages, I am so confused on what your question is, are you wanting a 360 camera for making 360 images and videos? or are you looking for a standard image based camera for video work e.t.c if that's the case, then a dedicated VIDEO CAMERA not a PHOTO camera would be suited.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 1/2/2021 at 12:05 AM, SanityGaming said:

Please use google translate for future messages, I am so confused on what your question is, are you wanting a 360 camera for making 360 images and videos? or are you looking for a standard image based camera for video work e.t.c if that's the case, then a dedicated VIDEO CAMERA not a PHOTO camera would be suited.

English is my first language, apologies if you thought the question was poorly written. I need a webcam that will stream into my HTC Vive virtual reality headset using Unity. I was looking for advice on which camera might be best - either a 360° or 180° camera. Thanks.

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Just now, VibrantNebula said:

@AdamSmith @BethMackey

External stereo cameras for HMD are a pretty niche thing. ZedCamera is pretty much the de-facto leading solution. I've been told the SDK is more on the intermediate/advanced side of the spectrum.

Hi thanks for your reply 🙂 That's interesting because i've found the Zed 2 camera., which i'm currently using, much less immersive and more like "looking at a screen" within the headset. Any tips on how to improve the field of view please?

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@BethMackey - Their FOV is probably hardware limited. I don't think any of us at Vive have had direct experience with Zed 2 - it's a really niche product in context.

The problem with trying to get a VR360 or VR180 camera piped into Unity in real time is that the camera manufacturers don't offer the requisite SDKs to process the images in real-time and pipe them into Unity.

Pretty much every camera I know of that offers "live streaming" are geared towards providing a stream to Youtube but that's not really practical for most uses as there's considerable delay.

Zed is the defacto-leader in this simply because they offer the runtime and SDK for the required types of real-time rendering into an HMD.

You could try to find a wide FOV webcam and just bring that into Unity as a standard 2D webcam and distort the geometry you're playing it back on but getting something that's "stereo correct" or "monocorrect" would be very difficult and all custom implementation.

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Just now, VibrantNebula said:

@BethMackey - Their FOV is probably hardware limited. I don't think any of us at Vive have had direct experience with Zed 2 - it's a really niche product in context.

The problem with trying to get a VR360 or VR180 camera piped into Unity in real time is that the camera manufacturers don't offer the requisite SDKs to process the images in real-time and pipe them into Unity.

Pretty much every camera I know of that offers "live streaming" are geared towards providing a stream to Youtube but that's not really practical for most uses as there's considerable delay.

Zed is the defacto-leader in this simply because they offer the runtime and SDK for the required types of real-time rendering into an HMD.

Thank you so much, that's really helpful. I tried a 360 degree webcam and it was wonderful but unfortunately the resolution in real-time was so insufficient. I keep at it with the Zed until something else comes along. Thanks again!

 

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