Virtual reality social publishing company Zeality Inc. is introducing a new feature to its platform that will let users save and publish their own experience in VR for other people to view.

This feature is called “Re/Lives” and it mimics a popular YouTube fad called “reaction videos,” or when people film themselves “reacting” to other videos as a form of entertainment. With the Re/Lives feature, users are now able to record themselves experiencing VR content in the form of a 360-degree video from within VR.

The system uses the front-facing camera and microphone on the mobile device used to record video as well as the gyroscopic motion such as head turning or pinch-swipe movements used to navigate the VR world. The result is a “reaction” video that catalogues the point of view of the user that can be played back and watched by another.

“We’re combining social interactivity with VR and the concept of sharing each individual’s VR experience with other people in real-time,” said Dipak M. Patel, co-founder and chief executive at Zeality.

The company’s service currently provides a publishing platform for VR creators to offer their work to viewers with an added social engagement layer. The addition of VR video-recording capability that gives viewers the ability to experience VR content with the added layer of someone else’s point of view is yet another layer.

“Ninety percent of a virtual reality video goes completely unexplored,” said Patel.

He went on to say that the addition of this feature represents a new way for users to share their VR experience in a way not fully realized in the industry. “Not only will influencers, creators and users be encouraged to leverage their talents and better satisfy a growing VR market that is hungry for engaging content, but it will also allow for pull-through for immersive media content,” he said.

According to Zeality, enabling this feature is an out-of-the-box procedure for users and does not require any additional hardware or plugins. The company said that it will be leveraging next-generation networking, cloud-based encoding, adaptive bit rate streaming and auto-scaling infrastructure to deal with demand.

The Zeality app is available on mobile VR platforms in both the iOS App Store and the Google Play Store. More information about Re/Lives can be requested from the company for content creators and businesses interested in integrating with this new function.

The company added that Re/Lives is the first of many interactive features coming to the Zeality platform that can be integrated directly into content creators’ own digital media solutions.

Photo courtesy of Zeality