After nearly 5 decades of innovation in camera technology, the IMAX corporation is officially moving forward into development of IMAX 3D quality VR cameras. The company is creating an entire division that will be devoted to the technology and is looking to branch out not only into content, but the overall experience as well.
The news comes from the IMAX website as they revealed their official partnership with Google to develop cinema grade technology and VR experiences. While the actual project is only just now beginning it’s development, the camera is expected to take approximately 18 months to see through to its completion.
Additionally, it was revealed that the live experiences for the media is being developed in a partnership with Starbreeze Studios. Starbreeze, the company who was recently announced to be in the process of opening VR Arcades, will expand the initial content available at these locations to include IMAX experiences, as well as providing the equipment and headsets.
The camera has been titled simply, the IMAX VR Camera and is being built to utilize the Jump VR platform. This platform is both a physical and digital ecosystem that allows people to create and view 360 VR content. The one area of interest however, isn’t necessarily how the company will create the camera, but how big it will be. Current VR cameras average out to just smaller than a Soccer ball, whereas even IMAX’s newest and most advanced cinema quality cameras are on average about 3x that size, with only 2 lenses. Meaning the project will take some serious engineering prowess.
However they do it, the project is in the beginning stages of an 18 month development, meaning we can expect to learn a lot more in Fall/Winter 2017. However, in the meantime the company has handed over unspecified IMAX films to the engineers at Google to begin conversion for VR platforms.
Some of our posts include links to online retail stores. We get a small cut if you buy something through one of our links. Don't worry, it doesn't cost you anything extra.
