A friend of mine has got his hands on an Oculus Rift developers’ kit. For anyone who hasn’t seen this stunning piece of technology, it’s like one of those early nineties virtual reality headsets but done properly: it works amazingly well.
Naturally an F1-related application had to be found and here it is. Last year Red Bull and Making View filmed Sebastien Buemi lapping a circuit in Norway using a 360-degree camera.
Put the two together and here I am looking even more gormless than usual, peering around Buemi’s car as he laps the Rudskogen Motorsenter:
http://youtu.be/XIzyiaWrO3c
The screen in the background shows what is being projected in front of my eyes – the effect is very convincing and will be much better once the HD model is available. (I’m sure the Senna T-shirt won’t go unnoticed either!)
Wouldn’t that be a cool way to watch onboard cameras during a race?
You can play with the original video yourself here:
Red Bull reveal interactive 360-degree video of their F1 car in action