GoPro's state-of-the-art VR Video helps you to Swim with Sharks

GoPro's trendy virtual fact video enjoy is simply in time for Shark Week. but in case you ask professional adventurer Jeb Corliss, he will let you know it is simply in time for sharks.

every year, one hundred million sharks are killed, lots of them illegally. Misunderstandings perpetuated through hyped-up "mockumentaries" and movies along with Jaws or The Shallows, instill the sort of fear and apathy that justifies the deaths. the ones attitudes are sending sharks into extinction, says Corliss.

however GoPro's VR video, Diving with Sharks, the fact below the surface, which capabilities Corliss and shark expert and conservationist Jim Abernethy diving with hammerheads, lemon sharks, and Caribbean reef sharks within the Bahamas ought to help alternate attitudes.

"Diving with sharks is perceived as stunt," Matthew Reyes, strategic content supervisor at GoPro instructed DNews. "however by no means. those sharks have personalities; they are not guy-eaters. How can we offset that?"

The video, which is also to be had right here, opens with a night dive, wherein sharks emerge suddenly from a pitch black sea into a globe of mild. Over the exaggerated exhales of a person (you) breathing through a regulator, any other diver's hole voice says, "Eyes open, appearance on your left" and then, "Shark coming in from the proper side." The track speeds up.

Corliss, better recognized for his sky diving, BASE leaping, and wing healthy exploits -- along with a recent wing healthy flight over the incredible Wall of China -- has been diving with sharks for 24 years.

He turned into sixteen years antique the first time he did it and he went in watching for what many people count on.

"I had a preconceived concept that is became going to be a exceptional-excessive-power, terrifying element," he said. but while he got into the water, it changed into the alternative. The animals have been non violent, calm, docile. Corliss felt a serenity he hadn't expected.

"The most placing thing for me become how scared they were," he said. "They don't want to get near you. You can't be fearful of some thing it is so scared of you."

extra these days, at the same time as planning a trip with Jim Abernethy to film sharks, Corliss got the idea to contact his sponsor GoPro about developing a VR enjoy.

"We desired to expose humans what it changed into definitely like to head on a dive with sharks," Corliss stated.

associated: FItbit-Like Tag Tracks Sharks After trap-and-launch

GoPro's video channel on facebook features several interesting VR motion pictures, from browsing to skiing to wing suit flying. however you may also locate ones in which you could interact with rhinos and Sequoia trees.

Corliss says, "GoPro has a heart. What they have been doing for flora and fauna is beautiful."

To movie the dive in 360-diploma footage, GoPro placed their Omni multi-digicam setup inside a housing referred to as the Abyss, made by means of Kolor, a associate corporation. The Abyss has big dome ports that now not simplest allow for wide views but also create wallet of air in front of the lenses. these air pockets make it viable to transition seamlessly among underwater shots and above-water photographs without creating distortions inside the picture.

related: Shark's nighttime Rush Hour observed

The cameras are connected together so that the simultaneous videos are synched on the pixel stage. That gives the film editor higher manage and produces a higher quality video. you may see more details about the digital camera and get a in the back of-the-scenes story beneath.

earlier than going into the water, Abernethy instructs the divers to provide the sharks space. do not take hold of them by way of the tail or attempt to experience them, he says.

"you have to appreciate them," Corliss told DNews. "they have got teeth; they may be risky. however at the end of the day, they may be now not monsters."

once immersed within the VR experience, the dreamlike tranquility of the underwater international turns into apparent. Sharks waft into and out of the frames with none threat, whilst looking divers kneel within the sand.