A Cam Named Bob - Europe 2023

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An addition to the tech this trip is an Insta360 X3 camera. We’ve named him Bob. More on the name later.

Bob is waterproof, and normally experiences life at the end of a long stick where he can swoop around and look at the world. And what eyes he has, Bob takes a 360 degree recording of the world. This enables some cool effects, like this “tiny planet”.

With a conventional camera, you look then record. With Bob, you record and then choose. You decide what you want to look at with a virtual camera after the event has happened. This puts the premium on having Bob in unconventional or interesting spots. Bob can fly around. Bob can also sit still and take time lapses. Here’s an example.

Bob can fit between the bars.

Here’s a little more.

I’m still learning how to use these new approaches. The videos are fun and fancy to export but it takes time. It also takes experience to learn the camera techniques of zooming, craning, and finding interesting camera angles.

Perhaps more interesting than the camera tricks is the immediacy you get from having a virtual companion. I can show you fun videos but they don’t compare to watching these videos yourself, where you can be a companion in a conversation and choose who and what you want to watch. The name “Bob” is a gesture to this.

Here’s a fun video we made and the self-indulgently fun behind the scenes made from the same video.