One Click VR - Ricoh Theta

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Jason Warren
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One Click VR - Ricoh Theta

Post by Jason Warren »

Looks interesting...Ricoh Theta
Thanks to Ricoh Theta, there is no need to adjust the nodal point and you can instantly view the result on your IOS or Android smartphone. Kolor offers a unique solution to create virtual tours:
• Just place the Ricoh Theta on its ultra light carbon monopod
• Shoot remotely with your smartphone or tablet
• Drag and drop your images to Panotour
• Generate your virtual tour!
The bundle One Click VR is Simple, easy & affordable.

http://www.kolor.com/buy/bundles/one-cl ... re=default
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Re: One Click VR - Ricoh Theta

Post by tbwester »

Wow. I'm looking into this right now. Anyone using it?
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Re: One Click VR - Ricoh Theta

Post by tbwester »

The more I look at this the more I like it.

Any reason why we couldnt cut the pano into cubes and map in cyclone?

Just bought one.
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Re: One Click VR - Ricoh Theta

Post by Chris06 »

These look great; I was just thinking about the resolution you can achieve...

Ricoh Theta's spherical image is 'nearly 14 megapixels'; by the looks of it the onboard camera in a Leica P40 captures around 25Mpix (2048*2048*6); Is that the maximum resolution that cyclone will support in a cube map?

If so, the Theta looks like a great budget option for capturing imagery that is a happy medium between a 1024x1024 and a 2048x2048 cube map.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but since cyclone only supports up to 2048x2048 cube map images it's really not too far off the max resolution cyclone could deal with anyway. Image quality and dynamic range are a whole new issue though...
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Re: One Click VR - Ricoh Theta

Post by tbwester »

Right. Cyclone dumbs down the res anyways.

I am gonna give it a go and report back.
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Re: One Click VR - Ricoh Theta

Post by tbwester »

Yo, we just got one and it is impressive.

No stitching errors that I can see, and the quality of the images is really quite good. And you have full control of ISO and time of exposure - so the results even in low light can be ok.

The images can be cut into cube maps no problem for coloring scans. What I'm wondering is, can I tape this thing to the side of the scanner (near the mirror), and grab color imagery without using a nodal ninja or internal camera? I'm sure the accuracy will be worse, but could it be good enough?

I will keep everyone updated as we test. at only 300 bucks there is a LOT you could do with these.
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Re: One Click VR - Ricoh Theta

Post by jcoco3 »

Thad, if you are willing to live with a little parallax error then it will work fine. The closer to the scanner's origin the better, but I have had some decent results with my rig.

We tested this by positioning the camera over the origin then capturing a scan with the tripod column up. We then lowered the column so the len's nodal position was in the same place as the scan origin before capturing the images. In the second test we simply recorded a video while scanning knowing that nodal point and the origin were inches apart. After ripping frames, stitching, and picking points in Scene the colorization was decent. There was some vertical parallax, but it was not enough to worry about on low res scans.
http://www.laserscanningforum.com/forum ... 340#p35970

I am hoping that a future firmware version for the Focus would have an option to mimic this procedure, capturing a quick video with both the mirror and servo base slowing rotating rather than 85 images after the scan. The result could be a much quicker color capture sequence at the cost of color quality. For many projects I am willing to live with that loss in quality, because the current alternative is no color for the sake of saving two minutes per scan on scans that only take 1 minute. Silly...I know :|
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Re: One Click VR - Ricoh Theta

Post by Scott »

jcoco3 wrote: I am hoping that a future firmware version for the Focus would have...
I wonder how much more magic can be squeezed out of the firmware, and thus extend the life and usefulness of the scanner hardware? Anyone from FARO listening?
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Re: One Click VR - Ricoh Theta

Post by gregdowning »

Hey guys, I always have a theta in my pocket really great device.

There is an SDK for it if you want more advanced usage, https://developers.theta360.com/en/docs/

The panorama it outputs is 5376x2688 so your max cube face would be 1710 for stills. Each lens exceeds 180 degrees.
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Re: One Click VR - Ricoh Theta

Post by christopherbyrne18 »

Looks great and tripod mountable....

I'm sure it would be easy enough to work out the vertical offset and make a spacer similar to the Nodal ninja ones to make the focal point close to coincident with the scanner sensor.

Bound to be better than the greeny blue imagery the Leica camera's still produce and remotely operable which would be handy for getting out of the way.

Worth a punt for $350 but I see its on back order :(

Cheers,

Chris
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