Experience (virtual) reality with Jaunt

We live in a time when it’s not rare for foreign music acts to have concerts in our country. Sure, they might charge arms and legs (and internal organs) for good seats, but people nowadays can enjoy their favorite artists perform live—somewhat.

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There’s still the need to get a selfie stick if you want to capture the performances, of course. And then there are the superstar names that we have yet to welcome to our shores. You can always save for plane tickets to the nearest Asian country when someone like, say, Paul McCartney performs. Or you can get yourself Google Cardboard and download a cool new app called Jaunt.

Jaunt has a pretty bold selling point: You use the app with your virtual reality headgear and headphones, and you’re suddenly on stage with Mr. McCartney himself. Turn your head, and you can see the crowd. Virtual reality concepts like what Jaunt is offering has just leapt from science fiction to science fact. The best part? It’s free.

Jaunt is trying to take VR and present it to a bigger audience. Not everyone is into games (the top-of-mind and biggest market for VR), so why not enter the concert experience? Why not expand the potential to entertainment?

Not only can you look around the stage and the crowd in fully-immersive 3D and in 360 degrees, but Jaunt also has surround sound in the truest possible sense. We don’t hear in one volume level, especially when we turn our heads. Jaunt’s programming compensates for this, allowing you to really feel like you’re smack dab in the middle of a concert. Or even a battlefield.

Jaunt accomplishes its VR magic by 360-degree cameras with 14 lenses pointing outward, to capture every little detail and action. The company partnered with the former Beatles member to demo what the app can do. And it’s something you can experience in all its virtual glory.

Downloading the app gives you access to several movies. One is a suspense-filled kaiju-like attack clip. The other is a longer World War II war movie. Another concert snippet features Jack White of the White Stripes fame. Music helps reinforce the adaptive sound field Jaunt creates for the user, allowing for the viewer to appreciate the changes when turning the head to look around. For something like the WWII clip, it’s all about the immersion, with gunfire and explosions everywhere.

There are, of course, a few improvements to be made for Jaunt. For the clips you can watch, you’re more of a stationary observer. Movement is limited to how the clip was programmed to function. You can’t move away from the big monster even if you wanted, nor could you stay a couple of seconds longer on Sir Paul as he’s playing the piano. Some scenes can be jarring in transitions, while others feel like they’ve been stitched together—the images don’t align perfectly. But the possibilities for Jaunt are endless.

Jaunt can take us where its cameras can go—virtually everywhere. And don’t worry, the company behind the app doesn’t want to keep the tech to a select few. The tech’s still evolving and refinements are always forthcoming, so more and more people will get access to the tools necessary to create VR movies. The GoPro and its ilk have people making amazing content. These action cameras combined with a harness or two, or even a drone, took filmmaking to new territory. With Jaunt and its compatible hardware, however, it seems like content creators will need to start all over again, especially when planning their shots.

Jaunt is breaking new territory with how it wants to sell its stories. With this app, viewers can finally break free of their fixed positions and be allowed to actually be part of events as they unfold—at least virtually. The applications are limitless, from schools to offices. A PowerPoint presentation might be boring, but a VR presentation probably won’t be. For now, it’s all about entertainment, and Jaunt has those and more for a good long while.