So I’ve been wanting to take professional-looking 360-degree panoramas of late, and decided to get me some gear. Good new DSLR? Check. Solid tripod? Check. Fish-eye lens? Check. And then I saw this:
Darn. 360-degree streaming immersive video? Of London? Of humpback whales? Georeferenced and mapped onto Google Maps? Want a buzzword for 2008 — here it is: GeoImmersive video, by a company called Immersive Media. No word on pricing for these systems yet, but I’m already feeling so behind the curve… (Yes, there is an ESRI ArcGIS extension available.) (Via PanoToolsNG Yahoo group) [PS: Can’t wait for the live immersive webcams in Google Earth.]
Immersive Media is the company behind Google’s StreetView feature. They were seeing slow adoption so they took it upon themselves to drive cities and then search for a partner. Couldn’t ask for a more high-profile debut of this technology.
I first met Immersive Media at a GIS-related tradeshow about four years ago. Ever since then, I can’t get the idea of backpack mounting one of their devices and hiking the Colorado Trail. It would also be great for the Appalachian Trail or any other long trek.