Content-optimized 360° video rendering technology could take immersive filmmaking to the next level.
South Korean computer graphics and visual technology company KAI Inc. is looking to breath new life into the 360-degree format with breakthrough technology that could drastically improve the quality of immersive 360 streaming video content.
Using what the company refers to as their Rich360 service, it is possible to maintain the original quality of important areas while compressing the capacity, resolution, and transfer-rate suitable for storage and real-time transmission by converting 360 videos to content-optimized form. Rich360 can be used for streaming services, mobile apps, and VR apps to deliver the highest quality in any environment. With these powerful features, Rich360 offers VR Video Solution and LIVE Streaming Cloud to creators, publishers, and developers to deliver immersive media with the richest content.
VR Video Solution minimizes the burden of content storage or streaming server costs through Content-Optimized Encoding technology which is a new approach that optimizes video content itself. It can easily be applied to various server, CDN, and player configurations quickly by applying SDK for different kinds of development environments.
Image Credit: KAI Inc.
LIVE Streaming Cloud is the all-in-one solution for streaming live events with vivid quality. Along with a powerful feature called Real-time Content-Optimized Encoding, it provides a real-time interactive monitoring tool with various functions. Live streaming quality or performance degradation can be quickly and easily resolved by setting the priority of scene quality intuitively.
Rich360 also features top-notch 360-degree video service consulting, including 360° video service idea commercialization and consultation, as well as web and app development support.
Image Credit: KAI Inc.
“Rich360 provides content creators with an innovative and powerful way to enhance their 360 video content with higher image quality,” states the company in an official release. “Incorporating the company’s proven technology, which was presented as a technical paper on ACM SIGGRAPH, Rich360’s suite of tools automatically optimizes the content and streams them at the richest quality over the internet.”
“We never stopped thinking and we never stopped researching to provide a better solution for content creators who must have been disappointed with low-quality rendering results despite all their hard work,” adds Jungjin Lee, CRO of KAI Inc.
The technology has already proven itself useful in the development of a number of VR and 360-degree projects, both ongoing and released. For instance, KAI teamed up with VR game development studio Oasis VR to provide low cost, high-quality video streaming services for their upcoming dating app, LuVRevolution, in which players interact with and date a variety of famous models; each represented via thousands of clips edited using multiple hours of live action footage.
The Dongdaemoon Design Plaza (aka DDP), on the other hand, incorporated the technology into a 360-degree art exhibition in which guests toured the life of Gansong, a famed art collector specializing in Korean culture, using Samsung Gear VR mobile headsets. Entitled Alternative Dreams, the exhibit used Rich360 to provide a surreal experience, allowing guests to view every detail of the showcased art; from the tiny cracks spreading like veins throughout an ancient vase to the slight wear-and-tear on the canvas of classic paintings.
Image Credit: ScreenX
A spin-off of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology’s (KAIST) Visual Media Lab, KAI Inc. previously engaged in the joint development of the world’s first multi-projection theatre system, the CJ CGV ScreenX; a platform that has since been incorporated into over 150 theatres across the globe. The company will expand its advanced projection offerings alongside Rich360 as it begins rolling out KaiCast, the world’s most simple multi-display solution based on a cloud server and compact wireless devices.
“We’re passionate about empowering ordinary people to create stunning visual environments for any application,” said Daehyeon Wi, CTO of KAI Inc.
With Rich360 and KaiCast, KAI Inc. further solidifies itself as a major influencer in the world of immersive media. As cheaper, more accessible 360-degree video technology and multi-display solutions continue to become more readily available, this growing start-up could find itself in a very influential position among immersive content creators.
