Method and apparatus for recording images for a virtual reality system

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention and its advantages are best understood by referring to FIGS.
1-9 of the drawings, like numerals being used for like and corresponding parts of the various drawings.
As illustrated by FIG.
1, a video collection system 10 is illustrated.
The video collection system 10 is for collecting and recording a sequence of images for generating a virtual reality environment.
The present invention collects a series of images that may represent a full 360 degree field of vision.
The 360 degree field of view is obtained by a plurality of cameras 100 positioned so that the field of vision of all of the cameras receives the images that include the 360 degree field of vision.
The cameras may be equally distanced positioned along radius of a circle.
The angles between these radius may be equal so that each of the cameras receive an equal portion of the 360 degree field of vision.
The images from these cameras are converted to video signals and selected so a respective sequence of images from each camera is produced and this sequence is subsequently recorded in a recording device, for example, a VCR.
The cameras continuously receives the images as a transporting device of the cameras traverse a predetermined path at a predetermined rate, for example, along a path for a roller coaster, a highway or a hallway.
In this manner, the images and the corresponding video signals change as the scene along the path changes.
These video signals are recorded for playback and displayed at a later time.
When these sequence of video signals are received during playback of the VCR, a portion of the video signals are selected to be stored in a memory and subsequently displayed on a display screen.
This selected video signals are determined by the number of cameras, and the direction that the user is facing as the VCR is playing back the images.
The number of cameras is selected such that the 360 degree full view of vision is achieved.
For example, two cameras may be sufficient if each camera has a field of vision of 180 degrees