Facebook is not in the business of making cameras but it’s heavily invested in virtual reality. It owns Oculus which makes one of the best virtual reality headsets that money can buy, and it also supports 360-degree content on the world’s largest social network, so it wasn’t surprising when Facebook introduced a 360-degree camera at the F8 developer this year. In an interesting move, the company has opened up the entire project to the public, all of the blueprints and everything is now out in the open.
The camera – called Surround 360 – is now open source meaning Facebook is making the blueprints available for free to everybody who wants to build one.
The company has also put up the instruction manual for the 360-degree camera online. It’s not going to be selling any hardware so enthusiasts who are looking to make one will need to have enough resources to fashion one on their own.
It won’t be cheap, though, actually building the Surround 360 using all of the information that Facebook has made public costs $30,000, so this isn’t a DIY project that you and I are going to tackle on a Sunday. It’s best left to those who can actually get their money’s worth from the camera.
Facebook wants more 360-degree content on the social network and this is a great way to get more pros and semi-pros to pay attention to that.
Filed in . Read more about Facebook and Virtual Reality (VR).