NextVR Introduces a Night Vision VR Camera for Paranormal Show

VR isn’t worth much as a platform if there is no content for it. After all, without anything to actually do with your VR hardware, it’s just a weird mask that cost a lot of money. So we need as many companies punting content as possible.

NextVR has been making a name for itself as a mass maker of VR videos. Mainly they’ve been cornering the market on streaming VR coverage of major events, but they are also making pre-recorded content for consumption on their platform through their app.

Now the company has cracked one puzzle of VR camera technology no one else seems to have figured out yet: night recording.

Camera Shy

There are a lot of VR video cameras coming out of the woodwork these days. Companies like Samsung will happily sell you a 360-degree camera for use with your Gear or Uploading to YouTube.

There are many approaches to creating immersive 360-degree video, ranging from simply using multiple cameras with software stitching to weird physics manipulation using light fields.

That’s all very impressive, but somehow the ability to shoot good VR video at night has eluded us. Despite this being a feature cheap camcorders have these days.

But it’s not the regular old IR infrared we all know and love, NextVR is recording the “full spectrum” from IR to UV, in order to capture some “unorthodox” subjects.

Half is Better Than None

NextVR hasn’t actually shown 360-degree nightvision camera tech yet. What they have done is show video for their new experience Paranormal Evidence which is a sort of ghost-hunter like reality show where you have 180-degrees of vision. Still plenty of space to creep people out with ghost sightings.

Multiple Perspective

In an interview a company spokesman explained that creating the sort of full-spectrum night recording we see here is a serious technical challenge, because they make use of cameras with a high depth-of-field. Since IR, UV and normal light all have different focal depths making it all work seamlessly is a tough nut to crack. A nut that NextVR says is now pretty much smashed.

Who Ya Gonna Call?

By recording in this full spectrum the idea is that if there are any ghosts, poltergeist or other creatures from beyond the veil lurking around a rig like this is likely to catch them.

While the company has only shown use 180-degree footage, they say that the 360-degree rig is already built and as the show progresses it will come into play.

Even if you don’t want to be a real-life Ghost Buster, this camera tech might mean a revolution in VR nature documentaries or even scientific research where they want to capture as much details in a scene as possible. Who knows, maybe this time someone may even prove that ghosts are real.