We've all seen cool panoramic photos. Also, many of us may have been to amusement parks where they have white domes projecting 360° video on the dome. Though there is a lot of distortion when using curved walls. Not exactly a "true" life-like 360° experience. I've also seen real estate websites let you virtually explore a home with your mouse in 360°, but it's still photos - not video.

Well, a Dutch company called yellowBird has some very innovative technology that brings true life-like 360° video to the PC. I checked out the skiing demo and WOW! Amazing how I was able to use my mouse and while the video is playing drag my cursor and change my viewing angle a full 360 degrees! Now if only it were in 3D!

Check out this 360 degree panoramic video which is a collage of various videos yellowBird took. Make sure to click & move your mouse on the video:

"We have completed 360 projects for a variety of projects including capturing music festivals, landscapes, advertising concepts for big business and exclusive parties all in interactive 360 video. We have been covered in the BBC's Click and will soon be featured on Channel 5's The Gadget Show (UK)."

They added, "From creating 360 degree adverts to unique concert experiences using live streaming, the yellowBird 360 Video system films and presents in nearly double HD quality whilst also letting users interact and create their own movie."

The special 360° camera rig can be mounted on a car, helicopter, high rig, or even to a person skiing down a mountain capturing passing skiers. For you skiing fans check out the skiing footage at player.yb.nl/laax

YellowBird told TMCnet, "Once the footage is recorded it's stitched and polished in our post-production studio in Groningen, The Netherlands and then pasted onto a virtual sphere wherin the user is positioned in the centre. Our yellowBird Flash Player enables the viewer to interactively control which direction they see without stitching lines. We host the content on our own servers in order to virtually eliminate buffering times."

The added, "The applications of this technology are truly limitless. We are currently working with established music artists to provide a new dimension to the live concert experience that can also generate another source of income. Additionally, this creates a new opportunity for viral marketing campaigns which now can be truly interactive and draw the viewer closer to the brand's message in a fun and engaging way. Our 5 minute video for T-Mobile 's "Sing-a-long" in London was watched on average for 7 minutes, for example."

Cool technology. Not sure if this will take off, but definitely worth checking out for the coolness factor.

p.s. What's up with their long URL? Who's going to type that?
www.yellowbirdsdonthavewingsbuttheyflytomakeyouexperiencea3dreality.com/