Towards effective interaction with omnidirectional videos using immersive virtual reality headsets

Omnidirectional videos (ODV), also known as panoramic videos, are an emerging, new kind of media. ODVs are typically recorded with cameras that cover up to 360° of the recorded scene. Due to the limitation of the human vision, ODVs cannot be viewed as-is. There is a larger body of work that focuses on browsing ODVs on ordinary 2D displays, e.g. on an LCD using a desktop computer or on a smartphone. In this demonstration paper, we present a new approach for ODV browsing using an immersive, head-mounted system. The novelty of our implementation lies in decoupling navigation in time from navigation in space: navigation in time is mapped to gesture-based interactions and navigation in space is mapped to head movements. We argue that this enables more natural ways of interacting with ODVs.