Virtual Reality Meets DIY With Samsung's Project Beyond Samsung has announced a 3-D, 360-camera that lets people record and create their own virtual reality worlds.

By Kim Lachance Shandrow

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Samsung
Samsung's Project Beyond

Ever dreamed of creating your own world in virtual reality? Samsung wants to make your dream, ahem, a reality.

The South Korean electronics giant has unveiled Project Beyond, a pioneering (and pretty cool) 3-D, 360-degree camera designed to let people record their own virtual reality video.

Related: Hate Flying? This Dreamy (or Dorky) Virtual Reality Helmet Could Help You Escape the Experience.

For what it's worth, Samsung claims it to be the first of its kind. Like, ever.

Project Beyond, shown off at Samsung's developer's conference just hours ago, transports users from their dull, real-life existences into the digital beyond, capturing and streaming three-dimensional videos in crisp high-resolution 3-D. It can stream events in real-time and stash the data for future viewing. Plus, it uses stereoscopic interleaved capture and 3D-aware stitching technology to "see" scenes, just as the human eye does.

Related: Game Over? Oculus Fans Outraged By Facebook Purchase

The disc-like all-black gizmo, dreamed up by Samsung's U.S.-based Think Tank team, promises to teleport you "to the places and events you always wanted to see." With 16 cameras stashed inside and ultra-wide lenses built to jam out video at one gigapixel per second, it certainly has the gear to. But apparently not without pairing it with Samsung's Gear VR virtual reality headset.

Unfortunately neither is available yet. While the Gear VR goes on sale next month, who knows when Project Beyond will hit store shelves. Samsung isn't even calling it a product yet. Instead, the company calls it "one of our many exciting projects currently under development." For now, the futuristic, tripod-mounted VR dreamweaver is merely an "operational version of the device, and just a taste of what the final system we are working with will be capable of."

Related: The Latest -- and Unlikeliest -- Man to Reinvent Online Education

In the meantime, you can drool over the Project Beyond video from Samsung below:

Related: When It Comes to Getting Help, Business Owners Are Finding It Pays to Go Virtual.

Kim Lachance Shandrow

Former West Coast Editor

Kim Lachance Shandrow is the former West Coast editor at Entrepreneur.com. Previously, she was a commerce columnist at Los Angeles CityBeat, a news producer at MSNBC and KNBC in Los Angeles and a frequent contributor to the Los Angeles Times. She has also written for Government Technology magazine, LA Yoga magazine, the Lowell Sun newspaper, HealthCentral.com, PsychCentral.com and the former U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. C. Everett Coop. Follow her on Twitter at @Lashandrow. You can also follow her on Facebook here

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