Facebook now has a 360 degree camera too

Facebook's F8 developer conference is going on right now, and that means we're seeing plenty of new features and products being announced.


The latest sees the company rolling out their own 360 degree camera - which isn't a massive surprise from the owners of Oculus Rift. The product is called Surround 360 and features a total of 17 cameras - 14 arrayed in a circle around the body, a fish eye camera on top and two fish eye lenses on the bottom. It's said to offer total coverage, so you won't get that bizarre void where the tripod or operator is and costs around $30,000.


The most important element of the new camera is that it is capable of stiching together the footage in real time, with no complicated software needed. That's going to be a big advantage when this technology really takes off, provided you have the money to get involved in the first place. While Facebook has the design they've decided to make it totally open source, which means they'll be giving all the specs away for free on Github for talented folks to do with as they please, potentially creating new versions of the camera and helping to spread 360 degree video.


Surround 360 shoots up to 8K video and is highly durable and portable and early reports of the footage suggests its one of the better options out there - and it doesn't hurt that it creates video which will export directly to Facebook's feed. The design will be made available in summer 2016.

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Facebook Launches Video Rights Manager To Combat 'Freebooting' And Copyright Issues: Here's The Deal

Facebook is cracking down on 'Freebooting' practices, and it rolled out Video Rights Manager to protect copyrighted materials. The Rights Manager will offer flexibility to content creators who want to keep exclusivity on their clips.
(Photo : Facebook)

Facebook officially rolled out Rights Manager, its proprietary variant of YouTube's Content ID.
The service acts as an admin tool for Pages, which allows content creators to upload video clips that they want to have exclusivity on. Facebook does the heavy lifting by monitoring how many copies of these videos were posted on its pages and it notifies the copyright owners of the clips.
With the help of Rights Manager, Facebook reports those who share copyrighted content for personal gain and notifies the original publisher.
The tool emerged as a necessity, following the plague of stolen videos that pop up on the social network.
A number of business-oriented pages use YouTube videos, TV clips or content from other pages to increase fan engagement, but fail to indicate the source where the material was taken from.
This practice is dubbed "freebooting" and it causes understandable irritation to video makers and marketers alike.
Even though Rights Manager is not open for public use yet, owners of video content can already apply to join the program.
There is a consistent flexibility packed in the Rights Manager. Depending on the number of times a video was copied, or what Page used it without consent, or the number of views it received, owners can take different actions. A publisher may choose to whitelist certain Pages that have permission to utilize its videos.
A monitoring option for Live Video exists, making sure that people do not rebroadcast pay-per-view content, such as a boxing match, for example. The rebroadcasting is possible on rival services, such as Twitter's Periscope, which angered a part of the industry.
Two control options exist for Rights Manager: the dashboard is useful for smaller entities, while a specially designed API gives big media companies' extensive control over their content.

A major difference between Facebook's service and Content ID from YouTube is that the latter allows content owners to leave freebooted videos up while earning money off of them. The social media company already has a system in place where ad revenue is divided between the video content owner and Facebook. Of course, this implies that the video has ads embedded, which is not always the case with video clips.
Facebook marketed itself as rather soft on content rights. Some speculate that this is the reason why the rights to stream NFL football games went to Twitter instead of Zuckerberg's venture.
source: http://www.techtimes.com 

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Facebook IQ Examines the Tender Side of Technology

Does technology drive people further apart or pull them closer together? The latter is true, according to a recent study by Facebook IQ.
The social network’s research arm surveyed users in Nigeria, South Korea, the U.K. and the U.S. and consulted with experts and influencers to help determine how technology helps people “create new and different expressions of love.”
Facebook IQ arrived at four basic findings.

• ODA is the new PDA: Online displays of affection are the new public displays of affection. Facebook IQ found that 67 percent of the users surveyed agreed that the Internet has made long-distance relationships easier, with that figure rising to 82 percent in Nigeria. One respondent shared the story of Squeak and Quackers: “The last time I saw my boyfriend, we shared (an egg-shaped candy with) two small duckling figures. Mine was dubbed Squeak, his is Quackers. We take photos of our respective figurines in various locations … and send them to each other via private WhatsApp or Messenger.

• All you need is love … and tech: More than one-half of respondents in Nigeria, South Korea, the U.K. and the U.S. use online dating websites or applications, with one out of five doing so regularly. Facebook IQ found that 61 percent of online daters in its survey said dating websites and apps have made it easier to find compatible dates and 45 percent believe people are more likely to find compatible partners online than offline.
• Home is where the WiFi is: More than one-half of respondents in Nigeria, South Korea, the U.K. and the U.S. believe the Internet allows them to feel at home no matter where they are, with Facebook IQ finding that friendship-related keywords such as “best friends,” “friends for life,” “like old times,” “tbt” and “throwback Thursday” were used an average of 134 percent more in Nigeria, South Korea, the U.K. and the U.S., with that figure soaring to 185 percent for those 65 and older. A virtual birthday party via Instagram is pictured below.

• Pic or it didn’t happen: More than one-half of respondents in Nigeria, South Korea, the U.K. and the U.S. enjoy online interactions with friends and family as much as real-life interactions, and one Instagram user said she felt compelled to “digitally document” a birthday card she mailed to her father. Speaking of digitally documenting:

Facebook IQ also provided the following takeaways for marketers on the social network:

• Celebrate relationships in creative ways: People are increasingly going online to fulfill the human want and need to connect with everyone from their loved ones to new romantic interests and old acquaintances. Brands should think creatively about ways to highlight and celebrate meaningful moments in people’s relationships.
• Adapt millennial trends for older generations: Millennial behavior isn’t just for millennials anymore, especially online. From habits to hashtags, identifying trends popular with millennials can help brands lead the adaptation for Gen Xers and baby boomers.
• Connect in a new online marketplace: As more and more rituals are reinvented online, new marketplaces will spring to life. Brands can seize these opportunities by strategically thinking about how their own products and services can become a part of such marketplaces.

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How Facebook Is Driving Users To Watch More Sports On TV

As the world gets ready to watch Super Bowl coming Sunday, a new Facebook study has revealed that the volume of Facebook shares and posts from its users 15 minutes prior to Super Bowl kickoff helped increase more first-minute TV viewership.

"We believe that fan engagement and content sharing at this scale, distributed to millions more via friend networks on Facebook, drives awareness and tune-in for live sports broadcasts," Dan Reed, Facebook's head of global sports partnerships, was quoted as saying in a variety.com report.

An increase of one Post within the 15-minute period before the game correlated to nearly 250 additional TV viewers in the first minute while an additional Share correlated to 1,000 viewers in the same time frame, the study noted.

In addition, Facebook shares and posts correlated with subsequent increases in TV viewership.

The findings of the Facebook-funded Nielsen study comes as the social networking giant has launched Sports Stadium -- a dedicated place to experience sports in real time with your friends and the world.

In Facebook Sports Stadium, you can see posts from your friends and their comments on plays as well as enjoy commentary from teams, leagues and journalists with easy access to their Facebook Pages.

You can follow the action as the game unfolds with a live play-by-play, and even like, comment on, and share individual plays.

You can also get up to speed quickly with live scores and the most discussed plays.

"With 650 million sports fans, Facebook is the world's largest stadium. People already turn to Facebook to celebrate, commiserate, and talk trash with their friends and other fans," wrote Steve Kafka, product manager, in a Facebook Post.

With Facebook Sports Stadium, it may be tough for Sports Twitter to keep up as Twitter has only 320 million monthly users.

"Now we've built a place devoted to sports so you can get the feeling you're watching the game with your friends even when you are not together," Kafka added.

With Facebook Sports Stadium, all the content on Facebook related to the game is at one place and it comes in real time and appears chronologically.

"It's a second-screen experience that we hope makes watching the broadcast even better," Kafka said.

Nielsen has tied up with Facebook to expand Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings to include Facebook's topic data in the new Nielsen Social Content Ratings measuring activity related to TV and over-the-top video content.

According to Facebook, nearly 65 million unique users shared about last year's Super Bowl, making it one of the most-discussed sporting events in 2015 globally. 

 source: Life Hacker

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