Riding along YouTube and Facebook, which now allow users to upload interactive videos and photos, VR and 360° technologies have grown exponentially in recent times. With Internet access, everyone can now dive in a virtual reef, experience a roller coaster, stroll through the streets of a distant, and more – all without leaving our current location.
Similarly, the advent of smartphones has led to the explosion in the amount of 360° images, now even more so with cameras specifically developed for that purpose. Despite that enormous quantity of images, those seeking them might have a hard time finding them, as they are scattered around the Internet.
In order to solve this problem and bring these images together in one place, we have Kuula. It is a community created by Bartek Drozdz, an interactive designer and developer. This platform is designed to collect and organize 360° images, which can then be seen (or, more appropriately, experienced) right in any browser, wheter it is on a smartphone, tablet or computer.
Placing a photo on Kuula is easy. The first step is, obviously, taking the picture – this can be done with a smartphone, tablet or a 360° camera. Then, it is time to upload the picture to Kuula. This can be done easily, and Kuula offers several editing tools and filters, to make the pictures even better in the platform's 360° image viewer.
When photos are published on Kuula, they can be seen and appreciated by everyone else. Visitors and other users can explore popular and featured submissions, and also find, follow and interact with other users in the community. Pictures can also be shared on social networks and other websites with ease.
Built by someone that is definitely no stranger to new technologies, especially the ones related with imaging, one would expect Kuula to be a great place to host a huge library of VR and 360° images. The truth is that it does deliver, offering the fans of those images a great viewing experience, as well as a great community to share and discuss pictures and ideas.