22 Apr Mozilla Firefox partners with GV

Mozilla Firefox and GlobalVision Communication officially release today the world’s first HTML5 and CSS3 player for 360° immersive videos, as part of the Mozilla’s Web O’ Wonders series demonstrating capabilities of web-browser Firefox 4.0 (http://demos.mozilla.org).

Until now, immersive 360° videos were displayed in flash technology exclusively. Using HTML5 and CSS3 offers a world of new possibilities, including the ability to display on computers and mobile devices alike, such as Iphone, Ipad and Android devices.

This joint project by Mozilla and GlobalVision also emphasizes the growing presence of 360° images in web-technologies. « On the web, we see videos everywhere and for years we’ve been seeing the same flat rectangle players. Videos can be more than that: we need new kind of contents. This is what GlobalVision is doing as they bring a new dimension to online videos and create videos for a new-generation technology » according to Mozilla Evangelist Paul Rouget.

The official demo features three different 360° video timelapses shot on exotic places:

• Ankor Wat’s World Heritage Temple (Cambodia)
• Dubai city (United Arab Emirates)
• Cannes seastrip (France)

Paul Rouget further goes on, saying « with Mozilla’s latest web technologies and GlobalVision’s services, we’ve been creating a brand new interactive video experience. ». Jan-Mathieu Donnier, GlobalVision CEO, sums it up saying « everywhere you now see regular, old-fashioned photos and videos, we will replace them by immersive 360° photos and videos. We will replicate the real world online in 360° and allow everybody to browse it, whether from computers or mobile devices. ». GlobalVision recently realized a major breakthrough, disclosing VideoStreetView the world’s first 360° immersive video mapping available at http://www.videostreetview.com .