Canon goes beyond traditional cameras with Kokomo VR calls
Canon hopes Metaverse-style technology will give the company a future beyond the shrinking of its camera business.
Canon’s CES press conference didn’t mention a single traditional camera that the company is best known for. This reflects the consumer’s plunge toward cameras in the smartphone era.
Instead, the company focused on a range of products geared toward the Metaverse era.
Kokomo tomorrow?
One of Canon’s most promising products is Komoko, a virtual reality platform that allows people to communicate in a virtual metaverse-like space.
Unlike traditional video calls, Canon says Kokomo allows people to communicate face-to-face in a “life-size setting.” Kanon emphasized the fact that you saw the full body of the person you were talking to. Mark Zuckerberg’s infamous announcement to step into the Metaverse.
Kokomo offers a series of Zoom-style virtual backgrounds for people to communicate, including a trailer in Malibu, a beach house, and a tea house in the mountains. There’s also a pass-through mode if you just want to display it in your own office or living room.
The biggest obstacle to adoption is the hardware requirements. Both participants will need his VR headset, and Kokomo currently only supports Meta Quest 2. Canon hopes to expand support for other his VR headsets in the future.
virtual basketball
Continuing the metaverse theme, Canon also provided more information about the Free Viewpoint video system being trialed by two NBA teams.
Using a series of cameras mounted above the basketball court, Canon is able to create a virtual representation of the actual basketball game. The user experience resembles a video game instead of watching actual video footage.
Canon says this has many benefits for viewers. First, you can see the action from camera angles that were not possible with traditional broadcasts, such as the Slam Dunk player’s point of view. Fans watching from home could choose from a variety of camera angles to see the action.
“The younger generation already understands that. [already] Through games, through Oculus [VR headsets]”
The system also has benefits for the team, such as capturing a huge amount of player data because the athletes don’t need to wear special tracking equipment. For example, clubs can monitor a player’s gait after an unnatural landing to assess injury risk.
Commercial opportunities also picked up. For example, his virtual court can be plastered with a sponsor’s logo that does not appear on the physical court, giving the club an opportunity to generate new revenue.
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Mreal allows users to combine virtual and real world environments
Canon also wants to get a piece of the commercial VR business already on the horizon with products like Microsoft’s Hololens powered by Mreal headsets.
The Mreal X1 is a compact headset currently in the market research stage. The company claims it can be used for a variety of business uses, including collaborative product design, training, and prototyping.
One demonstration showed how a person wearing a headset could walk around and sit inside a prototype car. A headset wearer could see the audience at a Canon press conference as they looked out of their car window, demonstrating how the virtual and real worlds can converge (relatively) seamlessly.
