The high potential of, and interest for, 360° videos has also led to the development of a wide range of 360° players for a variety of platforms and consumption devices, like desktop computers, smartphones and Head Mounted Displays (HMDs). Examples of broadcasters offering 360° videos include, among others: BBC (UK), BT (UK), RTVE (Spain), CCMA (Spain) and RBB (Germany). The interest in 360° videos is also being reflected in the broadcast sector, as confirmed by a report issued by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) that indicates that 49% of its members are exploring and devoting efforts toward the integration of immersive video services. In general terms, the global market size of 360° films production is expected to be around 4 billion dollars in 2020, according to. As proof of relevance, more than 400.000360° videos were uploaded to YouTube in 2019. Examples include: New York Time, BBC, Facebook and YouTube. The study in reports on the impact in terms of content production, subscribers and consumption rates being achieved by many relevant media companies, institutions and online platforms that currently include 360° videos in their service offerings. Likewise, the demand for production and consumption of 360° videos has significantly increased in the last few years. However, 360° videos have the potential of providing immersive experiences, as well as a high degree of realism with less effort than using virtual modeling and reconstruction techniques in 3D VR, as real scenarios and characters can be directly captured with a 360° camera.ĭue to their potential, the scientific community and industry have devoted significant efforts in the last years to providing improved solutions in terms of many relevant aspects, like capturing and consumption hardware, compression and streaming strategies, and display methods.
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This free 360° exploration cannot be augmented with a free navigation around 3D spaces (commonly known as 6 Degrees of Freedom, 6DoF), unlike in 3D VR environments, because the 360° videos are in fact spherical projections of flat images. The users can then freely explore the omnidirectional space surrounding the capturing point, but at any moment they can only watch a portion of the sphere, mainly determined by the Field-of-View (FoV) of the display being used. The multiple views are then stitched together into a single, high resolution and seamless panoramic video. In 360° videos, a view in every direction is recorded using an omnidirectional camera or a camera rig that captures overlapping angles simultaneously from a fixed point. In this context, 360° videos have become a simple and cheap, yet effective and hyper-realistic, medium to provide VR experiences. The recent explosion of immersive media technologies, like Virtual Reality (VR) and 360° video, opens the door to new fascinating opportunities and revenue models, not only in the entertainment sector, but also in other key sectors of society, like education and culture. The paper concludes by discussing how the newly developed player has gone above and beyond the existing solutions and guidelines, by providing accessibility features that meet the expectations for a widely used immersive medium, like 360° video. The in-depth analysis has been part of a research effort towards the development of a fully inclusive and accessible 360° video player.
These features have been chosen based on guidelines from standardization contributions, like in the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the International Communication Union (ITU), and from research contributions for making 360° video consumption experiences accessible. This paper surveys a wide range of 360 o video players and examines the features they include for dealing with accessibility, such as Subtitles, Audio Description, Sign Language, User Interfaces and other interaction features, like voice control and support for multi-screen scenarios. However, until recently the focus has been mostly on adapting the existing techniques to fit immersive displays, rather than considering new approaches for accessibility designed specifically for these increasingly relevant media experiences. With the current trend towards immersive experiences, such as Virtual Reality (VR) and 360 o video, it becomes key that these environments are adapted to be fully accessible.
Accessibility is a key requirement for any multimedia tool and application.
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