You may be surprised to learn that there is an app in the Google Play Store that’s being billed as the app that lets you sync up multiple Android devices for capturing immersive and fully 3D video without any special equipment. It’s called Camarada and users can either use multiple smartphones to shoot 3D, VR-ready video content or have the option of creating less immersive 2D VR content with just a single camera. Thankfully, that means Camarada can still be used even if you don’t have access to a second device.
Camarada uses Android’s built-in syncing features and is essentially a software emulation of the kind of high-cost equipment usually associated with creating 3D or VR content. A video tutorial, uploaded by the developer, has been included below but the app itself is really intuitive to use in either single or dual-device mode. In single mode, shooting a video is just like shooting any other video. In the dual-device mode, the “left” device is held overlapping the “right” device in landscape mode. Users will need to experiment a bit to get the distance between cameras right since it will vary depending on how close or far away the filmed scene is relative to the cameras. They’ll also need to hold the devices together firmly to prevent disorienting wiggle in either device, but that shouldn’t be too difficult unless the devices being used are hugely different in size. In either case, users will only need to tap record on one of the devices once they’ve synced up. Syncing is straightforward as well, requiring just a few taps.
There are one or two caveats, though. As of this writing, Camarada is only compatible with 3 platforms. Those include Google Cardboard, Samsung Gear VR, and the classic red and cyan 3D glasses everybody surely remembers from the early days of 3D movie theater presentations. Users without access to a second device also won’t be able to shoot fully 3D content. That said, the idea behind Camarada is a pretty ingenious one and could pave the way for a ton of VR content to be created that otherwise would not exist. The app was first posted on Google’s Android Experiments page, as of May 8th, and the source code is also available through the source link at GitHub. Whether you’re a content creator already or just curious, Camarada can be snagged through the Play Store following the button below.
