Newsletter
Google initially announced its plans to build 360-degree camera rigs in partnership with GoPro at Google I/O last year, setting up the capability for content creators to buy the rigs and create 360-degree videos that could either be watched on YouTube or in VR headsets like the Cardboard VR viewer. This year it’s expanding on the collection of companies that are helping it build Jump-ready camera rigs for use with VR. Today during Google I/O at the VR at Google session they unveiled that they would be partnering up with Yi Technology and IMAX to build new Jump-ready camera rigs, each having its own purpose.
In collaboration with IMAX, Google is setting out to build a cinema-grade Jump Ready camera rig as Hollywood has taken an interest in what Google has done thus far with VR technology and the 360-degree videos. Beyond the announcement about the collaboration between them and IMAX, Google’s head of the VR division, Clay Bavor, didn’t mention any specific details concerning the device to be, or what kinds of content we may end up seeing once the device has been built and is ready to take action. Considering this, it’s reasonable to assume that this is a device which major Hollywood studios will end up using to create some fully immersive films in IMAX quality. This also isn’t the only IMAX related news, as Google announced yesterday that IMAX films designed for the Daydream platform would be coming to smartphones.
Alongside the announcement about IMAX, Bavor also mentioned today that they would be partnering with Yi Technology to make a Jump-ready camera rig as well. If you’re unfamiliar with Yi Technology, they’re a Chinese company which has recently set out to launch their Yi Home Camera 2 in the U.S., and they’ve launched an action cam as well as a number of other products. Basically, they’ve been doing quite a bit of work with cameras and they specialize in intelligent imaging technologies. Both Google and Yi are extremely excited about the camera system and what it will help do for the advancement of VR, but at the moment, neither company has shared any details about the pricing of camera rig, nor have they mentioned a launch date or what the product will be called.
