Mobile 360° Video Interaction

Omnidirectional videos (ODV), also known as panoramic videos, are an emerging, new kind of media. ODVs are typically recorded with cameras that cover up to 360° of the recorded scene. Due to the limitation of the human vision, ODVs cannot be viewed as-is. There is a larger body of work that focuses on browsing ODVs on ordinary 2D displays, e.g. on an LCD using a desktop computer or on a smartphone. We developed a new approach for ODV browsing using an immersive, head-mounted system. The novelty of our implementation lies in decoupling navigation in time from navigation in space: navigation in time is mapped to gesture-based interactions and navigation in space is mapped to head movements. We argue that this enables more natural ways of interacting with ODVs.