The immersive future: Intel and Kolor create YouTube’s first interactive, 360-degree video

If you want to see what the future of filmmaking looks like and don’t want to wait for Oculus Rift, then place your cursor on the video above and drag it across the video.

If you’re viewing this on a Chrome browser or on an Android device, then the video will swivel and rotate as you move, revealing a 360-degree video as singer Noa Neal of Belgium parades down the street singing her new single, “Graffiti.” If you don’t have Chrome or Android, you can still check it out here.

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The technology basically takes the Street View capability we already have in Google Maps and enables it for streaming video. YouTube’s platform now supports this immersive, 360-degree view of videos.

In this case, the video was shot using 6 GoPro HERO3+ Black Edition cameras, edited on a desktop computer that uses an Intel Core i7 processor, with integrated Intel Iris graphics, and then stitched together using Kolor Autopano Video Pro software.

Kolor is a French company based in the eastern town of Alpespace near the Alps.

Viewing the whole scene, you can imagine how filmmakers will have to dramatically rethink a scene where the viewer may eventually have total control of the vantage point. There’s tons of action happening in every direction at the same time, even if you’re not seeing it at any given moment.

On the other hand, such an immersive experience also invites repeat viewings to discover all sorts of details you never could have caught in one viewing.

Of course, we’re all expecting this will be the new normal when watching content on things like Oculus Rift. But imagine if something like this gets baked into Netflix?

Intel posted a longer description of how the video was conceived and produced. But what may be most remarkable of all is that the tools to create this kind of clip cost just a few thousand dollars.

The Kolor software costs about $700. Each GoPro is about $500. No idea about the PC. But you’re talking about $3,700 for the basics otherwise, which will put this kind of technology within reach of a lot of digital directors.

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The immersive video revolution just might be happening faster than anyone expected.