A real offer for virtual images

The emergence of cameras and headsets dedicated to 360-degree visuals heralds new applications on smartphones and computers.

Until now, the offer of cameras capable of 360-degree filming has been limited to a handful of products by Kodak, Ricoh or Giroptic. Samsung joins the movement by launching, along with its new Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge models, a spherical camera that records videos and photos in 360 degrees. Equipped with two lenses on each side, the Gear 360 can be used autonomously or from an app that only works on the latest Samsung smartphones. Once the images are captured, they can be viewed stereoscopically using a virtual reality headset or, after conversion, on the mobile screen. Simply tilt the smartphone up, down, right or left to move around the scene. Footage can also be uploaded directly to YouTube or Facebook. For a better experience, you will have to equip yourself with a headset like the Gear VR of the same manufacturer (99 euros) … only