In what could provide a visual boost for the adult Net, BeHere.com has developed a new video camera allowing viewers to "look around" as if they were in the room itself.
BeHere.com (www.behere.com) isn't in the adult Internet business or any other facet of adult entertainment, but adult Netizens are watching this product closely. "The BeHere.com folks came to the last Bay Area Adult Sites (BAAS) meeting," says JuicyMango.com Webmistress Caity McPherson, who helped create and directs the BAAS. "We were really impressed with their demo."
McPherson predicts that such major adult Netizens as Danni Ashe, mastermistress of Danni's Hard Drive, and others will pick up on the 360-degree camera technology "pretty soon," even if it means one of the few times the adult Net is behind the mainstream curve. "Adult online is using a lot of tried and true technology - chat, video, affiliate programs, community building through newsletters, etcetera, that was amazing when it first came out - but where's the new technology now? We're not proving our techno-saavy reputation any more," she says.
"Imagine the application… to the adult market," she continues. "A room full of naked people having sex that the viewer can scroll around in, viewing different parts of the room and being able to zoom in and out… 360-degree video enables the Websurfer to use their mouse to scroll around the room - live."
McPherson also predicts that when broadband becomes common and pervasive, 360-degree video will become the format of choice "for surfers wanting flexibility and control of the scene."
The camera and its data software have already worked the SuperBowl to enthusiastically received results, BeHere.com says. Company president E.C. Driscoll says it's the equivalent of putting a fan right on the field or in the dugout.
According to Wired, companies like ESPN and CNN are testing the new camera technology for news gathering and events programming, and Microsoft used the technology to put car buffs right into the driver's seats at the Detroit Auto Show.
BeHere.com also has what they call iVideo technology allowing users to personalize viewing applications, using a mouse to control their own virtual camera independently and look around within a video. "iVideo allows individuals to produce their own Internet event experience for each live broadcast or recorded video feed," the company says. "Any number of simultaneous viewers can independently navigate within a captured environment by choosing and controlling their point of view."
Content providers can use iVideo Create to design and publish "immersive" video for on-demand viewing, the company continues, applying what it calls "proprietary immersive video algorithms… output(ting) industry-standard video files types. These immersive video files can be imported into third-party video editing tools, such as Adobe Premiere or Ulead MediaStudio Pro."
Additionally, BeHere's iVideo Record allows for the recording of raw video to disc for later use with iVideo Create, the company says.
Major investors in the technology include Intel, Philips, Kodak, Enterprise Partners, and Wasserstein Adelston.
