ORBI Prime: sunglasses that can record 360 video

​Orbi Prime is a pair of sunglasses with four built-in cameras that can record 360 video.

This is definitely an interesting concept: sunglasses with the ability to record 360 video.  Besides allowing you to record 360 videos from your point of view, it’s also hands-free, and it looks cool.

Other features include:
– 3840 x 2160 (4k) video resolution
– IP64 water resistance
– electronic image stabilization

Here is a video about the project:

There are four cameras that each cover 110 x 160 degrees (oriented vertically).  They will then stitch this together into one 360-degree video.  It’s not a fully spherical 360 camera.  Rather, its field of view is 360 x “up to 300.”

There’s a sample video but it’s described only as a test of the software, i.e., it uses video from other cameras, not the ORBI Prime.

ORBI Prime says, “the video in our campaign page (lake kayaking) was captured and stitched using the latest software for ORBI Prime, which was tested using a customized, identical rig (position and orientation of the lenses) to validate the video-stitching.”

If you are interested in this project, check out their Indiegogo page.  Please note that as with any crowdfunded project, there are no guarantees.  In my opinion, this seems hard to design and manufacture.  Some of the challenges include:
– the very large distance between the lenses
– the lenses don’t seem sufficiently wide to provide adequate 360 coverage.
– there’s currently no 360 camera with comparable size. 
– sensor overheating from the 4k video
It makes me wonder whether the final result will have satisfactory image quality.

Thank you very much to Martin Smith for bringing this to my attention!