Making virtual reality videos is about to get infinitely easier

YouTube has been taking steps to embrace virtual reality videos, which is great, but it doesn’t really matter when nobody can really create virtual reality videos, at least not without some equipment that’s outside the reach of most content creators. To remedy this, Google has teamed up with GoPro to create a 360 degree video platform know as Jump, which will make creating virtual reality videos infinitely easier and more accessible. 

Announced today in San Francisco at Google’s I/O conference, the search giant is partnering up with action cam leader GoPro in an all new virtual reality endeavor. While the all-immersive technology hasn’t yet caught on in the mainstream, Google and GoPro are definitely looking to help the cause with the Jump platform. Jump is essentially a 360 degree video platform, consisting of both hardware and software elements, It can convert typical raw video footage into VR-like experiences, among other things. GoPro’s initial offering will be a Jump compatible camera array that can handle as many 16 individual action cams. The 360-Degree Camera Array carries GoPro Hero 4s and use Jump to sync them all up. The platform can deliver “accurate depth correct stereo” and seamless 360 degree videos, by making use of advanced color and exposure calibration. Google is also expanding support for Jump to YouTube. Jump’s 360 videos sound as though they will be viewable on both web and YouTube’s a mobile apps, along with having full support for Google Cardboard.