Facebook Open-Sourced its Surround 360 Camera

If you’ve ever wanted one of Facebook’s Surround 360 cameras – now is your chance. Chief Product Officer of Facebook, Chris Cox, announced recently that Facebook has open-sourced Facebook Surround 360, the world’s first 360 truly open source VR video capture system. Facebook released the blueprint, source code, design docs, assembly manual, and operational manuals on Github.

Facebook’s Surround 360 camera was first announced in April of 2016 at its F8 developers conference. It has 17 high-resolution cameras that are cased in a full aluminum body. Two aluminum plates sandwich the cameras to ensure stability.

Each of the cameras has 2048×2048 resolution and can capture up to 60 frames per second. The entire array is 41 megapixels and transmits up to 30 gigabits per second. Fourteen cameras are located around the outer ring of the Surround 360’s enclosure, plus one camera on top and two on the bottom. It is held up by a thick pole. When put together, the camera looks like a UFO from an old science fiction movie.

The open-source information released by Facebook is a set of instructions. You will have to come up with all the parts yourself. It has been said that the Surround 360 camera can be built for about $30,000 in parts. If you have the money to spend, and the technical expertise to piece the thing together, you can build your very own Surround 360.