Wednesday, October 27, 2010

360° Video on YouTube!


Taken from http://www.youtube.com/user/Doritosuk

Click on the full screen button for complete immersion

Doritos latest ad campaign allows fans to interact with their brand through music, and they chose 360° video to immerse viewers in engaging experiences from talented musicians around the world.  The UK's Professor Green provided a specially written track, "Coming To Get Me", to accompany one of several 360° videos created for the campaign.

For the full experience, visit http://www.doritoslatenight.com/

This 360° video is ground breaking on a number of levels.  First, it's on YouTube.  I don't know how often YouTube allows for a custom player to play custom content of this sort, but Sarah Perez of ReadWriteWeb found that noteworthy.  The player comes from yellowBird, who has produced a number of well-received 360° video projects over the last two years.  The player, which is an embeddable widget, allows for easy navigation of the 360° content, full screen button, social media sharing options, and an "unwrapped" version of the video with the 2D button. 

YouTube is the internet's biggest video distribution platform and acceptance of yellowBird's 360° video player there opens many doors for the Dutch startup and strengthens their position as the leader in the medium.

Also ground-breaking here is the resolution of this video.  This is one of the first productions I've seen using Point Grey Research's Ladybug 3 camera, which provides significantly higher resolution despite a reduced frame rate.  The production was apparently shot by Transmission TX in London, who have posted a number of production photos at their site of the swanky camera chair they have developed.  Outfitted with LED lighting under the Ladybug 3, as well as an operator and the necessary hardware, the action was directed around the chair as it moved through the set in one continuous take .

"Coming To Get Me" has probably the highest production value of any 360° video made to date.  The set was built specifically for the medium and considerable effort was made to stage a performance that fills the sphere of view with something worth watching...hot zombie girls!



Additional components of the effort include a Rihanna Augmented Realty music video that is "unlocked" with an AR code found on a bag of Doritos Late Night chips.  The "Late Night" campaign is Doritos' first ever global promotion and was created out of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners with AMV BBDO, who recruited director Chris Cairns.

A job well done from all of the creative teams involved that is sure to sell a bag of chips or two, but more importantly, leave a lasting impression on anyone who interacts with it. 

Here is the behind-the-scenes video from the making of Professor Green's "Coming To Get Me" 360° Video:

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

GigaPan via PhotoSynth: A Walk in the Gorge


Wahkeena Creek
See this Photosynth on Bing Maps

This image was one of the most precarious GigaPan placements I've made yet, in the middle of the stream near splashing cascades on a moss and fern covered stump.


Differing from most of the waterfall streams in the Columbia River Gorge in that it drains from a natural spring on the rim of the Gorge, Wahkeena Creek tumbles over a steep incline on its way to the spectacular Wahkeena Falls near the bottom of the Gorge. It is also spelled "Wahkeenah" or "Wah-kee-nah" or other variations. All spellings of this word are dubious, because the word is merely an English transliteration of a Pacific Northwest Native American (reportedly Yakama) phrase meaning "most beautiful". Wahkeena Creek is along the Historic Columbia River Highway, about 13 miles (21 km) east of Troutdale, Oregon. A short hike uphill from the parking lot at the base leads to the stone bridge that crosses the main part of the falls. That trail continues on east to Multnomah Falls, the next falls down the road.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

BBC Brings Viewers Onto The Set of Ideal Via yellowBird 360 Video



Over in the UK, BBC Three, who pride themselves on never being afraid to try new stuff, has opened up the set of Ideal to the 360 degree video cameras of yellowBird. 

Now in its sixth season (or series), Ideal is a sitcom about a small-time dope dealer and his strange collection of acquaintances who drop by to buy cannabis and chat or both.  The title is a pun, in case you missed it, as in "I deal". 

Through the yellowBird video, fans of the show are transported into the middle of the conversation in Moz's, the lead character, living room.  As the actors banter their lines back and forth, the viewer can choose to follow the conversation or watch the reaction of the others in the room.  It appears that this video was shot during a dress rehearsal and provided as a featured blog post at the BBC Three website.  The show's crew can be seen throughout the video, and, thus, the "fourth wall" is broken beautifully which makes this intimate offering all the more endearing to fans of the show.

It is an excellent example of how engaging 360 video content can be when there is actual production value involved.  It is also representative of the advancing quality that yellowBird's production platform is getting out of its Ladybug 2 cameras from Point Grey Research.  The varying lighting conditions of the set are well handled and the resolution being delivered in the quickly loading Flash player from yellowBird is better than anything seen before in this new medium.

Today, yellowBird stands virtually alone in the production of quality spherical video content.  With this summer's implosion of Immersive Media, the company that first brought spherical video to the web and recently decided to transform itself from a digital media company to an energy industry investment firm (WTF?), yellowBird is brilliantly positioned to expand its service base across a huge variety of industries.  Hopefully, they will learn the lessons from Immersive Media's ambitious failures and continue to keep their focus on producing quality content, only entering a market once they have built a solid offering.

It seems as if they will continue to do exactly that.  Another yellowBird project recently launched with in-video navigation to provide viewers with a virtual tour of a medical facility.  It's not in English, but you can take the tour and see it all at this link

There will be much more background on the implosion/conversion/sabotage of Immersive Media to come here on the 360 Video Blog as information becomes available, but today is all about congratulations to yellowBird for another job, very well done.  Check out their company website at their famously long URL:
http://www.yellowbirdsdonthavewingsbuttheyflytomakeyouexperiencea3dreality.com/
or just enjoy yellowBird's fantastic Showreel below

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

New York 360 GigaPans in HD View

I took a recent trip to NYC (my first) and brought the GigaPan robot along to shoot some of what I saw there.  Below you will find embedded versions of these high resolution 360 spherical images in Microsoft's HD View player.  You will need to install the HD View player to explore, but it is quick and painless, I promise.  Once you're set, follow these quick instructions for truly immersive experience:

1. Click on the grid icon in the upper right hand corner to change from a rectangular to a spherical projection

2. Click on the fullscreen icon to go to fullscreen mode

3. Use your mouse's scroll wheel to zoom way in or way out on the image, which should buffer hi res tiles in moments.

The Great Hall @ Ellis Island


Times Square


Brooklyn Bridge


The "World Trade Center Mosque" Editorial


The Sphere @ Battery Park


Bethesda Fountain @ Central Park


Thomas Paine Park @ NY Supreme Court

Saturday, August 7, 2010

High Resolution 360° Spherical Images



Let's take a break from chatting up 360 video for this post and return to the current state of the art of 360 still imagery.

To see what I'm talking about, you'll need to install Microsoft Research's HD View. It is quick and painless, but if the frame above doesn't offer you the option, click here

From the ongoing battle between Google and Microsoft to one up each other, a pleasant convergence of technologies has allowed a really great user experience to emerge.

Click and drag on the image above to look around.
Use your mouse's scroll wheel to zoom in and out.
Go to full screen in the upper right hand corner.
Since the image is spherical, make sure to toggle from normal to fisheye lens(spherical projection)by clicking the grid icon to the left of the full screen icon.
You can even adjust the lighting of the image if its too dark when you've zoomed in.


I shot this at the downtown Portland REI store with some help from Google, and the embedded player experience is provided by Microsoft. You can take a look around the store and zoom in for incredible detail. You can also zoom all the way out for a unique look at the entire sphere of view.

I won't go into how this image was made just yet, but I will just say that with the right equipment, it only took ten minutes to shoot and an hour to process. With available tools, this image can be placed in either Google Earth or Bing Maps. It is over 200 Megapixels (562 MB) and is being served on demand as a tiled mosaic just like the satellite imagery on those mapping services. Currently, there are no hosting costs associated with this image. One of the big players is taking care of that.

It represents an evolutionary step forward for online marketing applications that have historically embraced the "virtual tour" experience.

Check out the same photo on Photosynth
http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=d033b078-ed66-44e5-b55b-cd35394a5a03

Here it is on Bing Maps
http://www.bing.com/maps/explore/#5872/style=a&lat=45.5287235346356&lon=-122.684516827671&z=7&pid=5874/5003/0.6793=ps::mode:Explore:cid:d033b078-ed66-44e5-b55b-cd35394a5a03&o=&a=0

Open this KML file to view the image with Google Earth
http://gigapan.org/gigapans/45506.kml

Isn't it fun when we all just get along?

Here's one from my neighbor's backyard:

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

yellowBird @ The Party




yellowBird, the Dutch 360° Video provider that stormed onto the scene last year, is out and about in New York, talking to the people at Mill Creative, but they don't just show up and have a meeting, they bring a camera and put something fun online.


The video above is not ground breaking, it's not going to "go viral", or save the planet, but it is another in a steady stream of very good 360° videos that yellowBird has put out to increase the awareness of the technology. With awareness comes demand, and that makes seemingly frivolous efforts like this a very solid business decision in the long run.


yellowBird has broken new ground recently; however, with the launch of a virtual video tour that beautifully combines "standard" video and 360° video through the application of augmented hotspots.


BATAVIA STAD Virtual Video Tour by yellowBird


There are so many things done well here that it is hard to know where to start piling on the accolades. The client is Batavia Stad, a stylish factory outlet mall near Lelystad, Netherlands.


First, let's talk about production values on this project. They actually put some thought into shooting this walking tour around the shops, and they brought in four models to guide the viewer through the experience. Three women and a man, sharply dressed and very aware of their positions relative to the moving camera. They point at information kiosks and a billboard for the malls membership card. They walk briskly, popping in and out of shops and saying hello to friends. The experience leaves the viewer with a personal connection to the place, but there is another level of interaction as well.


Floating above the models' heads, rotating golden pentagons often appear.  Sometimes the floating pentagons, which is the modified logo for Batavia Stad, appear above an information kiosk or a sign.  When the user clicks on the golden pentagons, a "standard" video pops up with what I imagine is information partaining to the mall's offerings at that location.  I don't know because I don't speak Dutch. This augmentation is revolutionary and has long been on my wish list of compelling tools for a Video Virtual Tour. 


yellowBird is also promoting a new Live Broadcasting capability that it says hundreds of clients have been asking for.  I've mentioned Immersive Media's successes with IM Live here before and the extraordinary experience of watching a 360° video of a live event, like a rock concert.  I can't wait to see what yellowBird is going to do first with live streaming.  Hopefully, there will be multiple cameras on stage that will be accessible. 

Congrats to the yellowBird team on all of their success in their first year!

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Texas Stadium Implosion - BigLook360

The death of an iconic stadium and an Immersive Media Dodeca 2360 Spherical Video Camera.







From Dallas, TX, where both BigLook360 and Immersive Media have offices, comes a video that is grabbing the attention of sports fans, concert goers, tech geeks, and fans of destruction alike. Sometimes you just have to say, "Let's go for it!" to make something that will appeal to a broad audience. In this case, one very special camera had to be sacrificed so that we could get a view from inside the destruction of Texas Stadium. RIP Texas Stadium and Dodeca 2360 Camera number ???

Chances are, that camera was one of the cameras I had on the VW Beetle I drove across the continent for the Google Street View project. Only one camera was lost during that project when the team drove into the parking garage at their hotel while having an argument and forgot to take the camera down first. The footage survived that incident, too, and we all had a good laugh at their expense.



BigLook360 has worked with Immersive Media before on a project for the State of Texas Department of Tourism, called Texas On Tour, that I wrote about in this blog here and here. That project remains one of the best examples of what I believe is this new medium's greatest application - virtual tourism. SlopeView's has taken the virtual tourism concept one step further by referencing the 360° video to custom map with OnSnow@Whistler.

Having grown up in Dallas, watching Texas Stadium go down came with a mixed bag of emotions. I was there when the Cowboys of the 90's launched their dynasty in front of Monday Night Football fans by whipping their rivals, the Washington Redskins, in the season opener of 1992. I was also there in 1984 when the Jackson 5 Victory came to town. The later was my first concert experience (at only 10 yrs old), and like so many other kids my age, I was a big fan of Michael Jackson. Disappointment came only from the horrific acoustics inside of Texas Stadium that even a little kid could determine that the building was no place for music.

RIP Texas Stadium and Dodeca 2360 Camera number ??? You served your functions pretty well.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

What's New...

Hello Dear Readers! It's been awhile since my last blog post because I've been offline for nearly one month. So, how does one go completely offline for a month in the age of wifi, iPhones, and the rest? One must go into the wild... and stay there.

If you read my post from 3/7/2010 (Grand Canyon GigaView), you know that I've been on a Grand Canyon river trip in which I endeavored to create the first virtual tour of the Grand Canyon by river. Well, mission accomplished...almost. It's not online yet, but the images are turning out really well and they should be complete sometime in June.



The 360 degree video world has been busy over the last month with some interesting new developments. Just before we launched our rafts down the Canyon, SlopeViews launched OnSnow@Whistler, a virtual video tour of Whistler Mountain and Village. This represented a quantum leap in virtual tourism and is a project very close to my heart. Having built the project from the raw video files by accurately geolocating them on the Whistler Trail and Village Maps, I was pleased to finally be able to show the power of 360 degree video on a local level.



SlopeViews' OnSnow application is based on a new technology platform from Immersive Media called IM OnScene. According to Immersive Media's website, "IM OnScene™ pairs immersive video with an existing floorplan, blueprint, map or other document, allowing the user to follow a map visually through 360° video. IM OnScene™ works for indoor and outdoor areas, and can be referenced by any image or document."

They posted several examples at their website, but my hands down favorite is a virtual tour of the United States National Ignition Facility.



The picture above doesn't do this virtual video tour justice, but this tour gives you a rare view inside one of the most advanced facilities in the world where scientists are working on perfecting laser fusion. This image is a screen shot from inside the Target Bay area where the magic happens.

There are two new 360° videos now available from both MATIvision and yellowBird, too, but those updates will have to wait for tomorrow. I'm still on rivertime.

Cheers.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

SlopeViews Launches OnSnow@Whistler: 360° VIDEO MAP





Go to OnSnow@Whistler

[Full disclosure: I, Thomas Hayden, known here as UnderCam, contributed to the building of this product in coordination with Immersive Media and SlopeViews

Today SlopeViews launched OnSnow, a 360° VIDEO MAP that lets online users explore and experience a ski resort as never before. By clicking on any of the ski runs, ski lifts, or mountain facilities, the user is transported into a 360 video that allows them to look around where ever they choose.

They get to know the mountain online, where the steepest pitches are, where the best bar is at, etc. OnSnow(TM) influences the purchase decision for skiers that have a choice of several resorts to go to. They will go to the one they know.

Last month Google Maps brought StreetView to the slopes of Whistler Mountain just in before the opening of the Winter Olympics, but, for the first time ever, their map just didn't do the job. The satellite imagery doesn't mark the ski runs, lifts, or amenities. It just draws a line across a mountain and fills it with still images.

OnSnow@Whistler is alive with 360° video that can be filled with the brand message of the resort itself. The camera operator, Craig Adkins, is constantly being asked what he is doing and the experience of his breaking the "4th wall" (outdated term with this medium, I know), is kind of surreal, like eaves-dropping.

On the Village Map, the user takes a stroll past all of the hotels, condos, shops, and restaurants that Whistler has to offer.

Virtual Tourism will never be the same.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Grand Canyon GigaView



On March 29th, nine friends and I will launch rafts on the Colorado River on an incredible journey. As a former whitewater raft guide and Google Map Street View imagery producer, I want to capture this journey and share it with the world.

I will be shooting GigaPan images at every stop along the river for 18 days. Taking advantage of the 360 degree panoramic range-of-motion of the GigaPan Epic 100 robotic camera mount, I intend to capture the most detail-rich and immersive images that ever been taken at the bottom of the Canyon.

With a big box of batteries and Secure Digital memory cards, I will bring back thousands upon thousands of images from all of the most amazing points of interest including hikes, beaches, geology, vistas, and waterfalls.

Using GigaPan's software to stitch these into ultra-high resolution mosaics upon my return, I will build a website, upload the images to www.gigapan.org, and to Google Earth (where GigaPan has a layer). Visitors will be able explore Grand Canyon GigaView in all of its rich detail at a number of locations online...for free.

My expenses for this project are primarily hard costs of digital storage via at least 20 Secure Digital Cards (16 GB minimum) at $1,200, $200 worth of AA batteries, and $1,100 for the boat rental for a total of $2,500. My travel and trip expenses are self-funded.

Last year, the first image that photographer David Bergen shot with his new GigaPan imager of President Barack Obama's Inauguration introduced the world to this incredible new way of seeing. Explore that image (http://www.gigapan.org/gigapans/15374/) or take some time to explore the 20,000 or so GigaPan images that have been uploaded so far.

Backers for Grand Canyon GigaView will be rewarded with a virtual tour worthy of America's premier natural attraction. With successful funding, backers who contribute $50 or more to this effort will also be rewarded with the addition of their own image (subject to approval) into one of the GigaPan images as an "Easter Egg" to encourage further exploration. Those images will be featured as "Snapshots" on GigaPan.org. A corporate-level pledge of $500 will get your company logo on every GigaPan image that is published in this highly visible project.

Your support of Grand Canyon GigaView today will pay off tomorrow with hours of exploration as you and virtual tourists from around the world come along with us on our journey of a lifetime via the camera's lens.

See you on the river.

Thomas Hayden

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

NBC's TODAY Show in 360° Video Brings Viewer's To The Set

UPDATE 2/17/2010 5:30am PST: LIVE STREAM: Interview with James Cameron, director of AVATAR, from Grouse Mountain Lodge.
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/35372905/ns/today-today_in_vancouver/
ARCHIVE: Matt Lauer's interview with Seth Westcott from yesterday was a great moment on the set. Check it out now in the 360 degree video.


It would seem that Immersive Media's admirable donation of services down in Haiti with CNN.com (and many other orgs) has paid off quickly with access to America's #1 Morning TV Show for NBC.com.

Check out Matt Lauer's interview with hockey legend Wanye Gretzki in 360°, interactive video, which happened earlier today, but went online tonight (Feb. 16, 2010).


Tomorrow morning (Feb. 17, 2010), NBC.com will be streaming 360° video LIVE from the set of the TODAY Show throughout the broadcast. This represents a watershed moment for the medium of 360° video and for Immersive Media as the medium's founding pioneer. Never before has 360° video been introduced to such a large audience as NBC's TODAY Show and its Olympic coverage provide.


“TODAY is known for providing its audience with a window to the world. We are thrilled to give viewers a new way to experience TODAY with imLIVE 360-degree web videos. This technology truly puts the viewer in the director’s chair,” said Larry Logan, chief marketing officer, Immersive Media. “The audience will see interviews with athletes, on-set antics amongst the anchors and more in a fresh new powerful way.”
"TODAYshow.com offers viewers exciting ways to immerse themselves in the news. With the live video stream on the set in Vancouver, they can experience one of the biggest events of the year in a very personal way,” said Catherine Captain, VP of Marketing for the Msnbc Digital Network. “We love giving viewers an insider’s perspective that they won’t find anywhere else.”


In a broadcast first, TODAY is giving viewers unprecedented access to its set at the Olympics Winter Games. TODAYshow.com will feature live, 360-degree, interactive video that allows consumers to view the TODAY set on Vancouver’s Grouse Mountain. Viewers can enjoy the Olympic set from the same perspective as Matt, Meredith, Ann and Al. TODAYshow.com will feature the live video stream from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. (EST) on February 16 and 17, 2010.

TODAYshow.com will feature one live video stream that alternates between two 360-degree cameras. One live stream provides viewers with interior views of the TODAY set in Vancouver and the other live stream captures the action outside the Grouse Mountain studio. In addition to live streams, selected segments will be available on TODAYshow.com following each broadcast. TODAYshow.com is using new imLIVE technology, created by Immersive Media, which allows viewers to see what's happening in and around the TODAY set – right from their computers. Immersive Media is a pioneer of 360-degree video, and its technology is helping TODAYshow.com deliver a one-of-a-kind interactive experience to its audience.

Congratulations to Immersive Media's Chief Marketing Officer, Larry Logan for the inspired job he and everyone in production have done to bring this new visual medium to the world's attention in recent months.

Full disclosure: I again work directly with Immersive Media as a part of SlopeViews, licensed agents of Immersive Media's technology. SlopeViews will be bringing the next generation of mountain trail maps to the ski industry as well as the next generation of "virtual tours" to the wider travel industry in days to come using Immersive Media's geodesic cameras to provide 360° video messaging and relation to the online audience.

Be sure to check out www.SlopeViews.com in the next few days to feel like a local at Whistler Mountain after exploring our SlopeView's OnSnow@Whistler 360° Video Map.

Here's a toast to the athletes of the Winter Olympics of 2010, including those courageous camera people who bring us the experience from Vancouver. Here is to many more online experiences from fascinating locations around the world in 360° video!

Cheers!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

CNN Haiti: 360°

UPDATE: Immersive Media is now populating a BING map with 360 degree video "routes" driven with the cameras that are in Haiti and sending experiences to CNN.com.
http://www.immersivemedia.com/haiti/map/index.html

Use your mouse to click and drag around the video to change the view. You can also zoom in and out.
The video below was shot on Sunday, January 17, at 3:53 p.m. EST in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2010/01/world/haiti.360/index.2.html
http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2010/01/world/haiti.360/index.html

New videos are being loaded @ www.immersivemedia.com each day. Here is the latest.


“All of us at Immersive Media are terribly saddened by the events of January 12th and want to do whatever we can to help improve the immediate and long-term situation in Haiti,” said Myles McGovern, president and CEO of Immersive Media. “As previous natural disasters have shown, detailed imagery and assessments of the affected areas are critical to relief efforts and future planning. Since many of the first responders and government organizations are not on-site in Haiti, these 360-degree videos give them an unprecedented view of the devastation from the ground level.”

Not long after the images started coming to all of us around the world from earthquake-ravaged Haiti, I started getting questions from readers, friends, and family about getting a 360° video camera down to Haiti to document the destruction and the relief efforts that we all want to help with in some way. My new coproducer at SlopeViews, James Hay, and I talked late into the night on strategies on getting to Haiti with our camera, but word came that a team was already on its way.

Today, CNN posted 360° video from that team on the ground that was shot on Sunday and Monday in Port-au-Prince. One video is very Google-Street-View-like, but it's in video. Shot from a vehicle traveling through the city, the viewer can clearly see that everything is not destroyed, but those buildings that did fall, collapsed completely. Last time, I complain about building permits.

The second video that I've embedded above is a walking tour of one of the city's parks where thousands now make their home. This new paradigm of virtual tourism allows the viewer to go inside the experience, but this is not intended as voyueristic. None of us has been able to look away from the images that have come from this disaster, nor should we. We need to this heartache to empathize and be compelled give as much as we can to the rescue and relief efforts.

Please Donate Again and Again to Help with Recovery Efforts



I have been looking forward to CNN's first use of 360° video for years now. I just wish it didn't have to be for something like this. My sources tell me that this is combined effort from several organizations and that services have been donated from all.

The thing I notice in this video is how relatively calm and normal everything seems. Perhaps, this will contribute to a reduction of the security requirements for relief workers that have slowed the flow of aid in recent days.

I have to wonder...Would we Americans do nearly as well given our anarchal fetishes and proclivity toward gun justice if we found ourselves in the same position?

To the Haitian people and anyone in the earthquake zone, please hold onto hope. The whole world is watching and stands with you.

To learn more about the technology and to see the latest videos as they come in from the field click here

If you have a project, idea, or application for 360 degree video, talk to us at www.SlopeViews.com

Here is this morning's press release from Immersive Media:

Media advisory: Immersive Media makes available 360-degree, geo-coded web videos of Haiti to help relief agencies, first responders, government departments and news organizations
Full-motion, interactive videos of earthquake devastation provide detailed views to aid emergency planning and response efforts



CALGARY, Jan. 22 /CNW/ - Immersive Media Corp. (TSXV: IMC www.immersivemedia.com) the world leader in 360-degree, interactive video, today announced the availability of 360-degree, interactive, online video footage of the earthquake devastation in Haiti free of charge to relief agencies, government departments and news-gathering organizations involved in the ongoing recovery efforts. The interactive videos can be seen at www.immersivemedia.com. The website shows an initial sampling of location sites in Port-au-Prince, with new video being captured and made available on an ongoing basis in the weeks ahead.

Immersive Media cameras capture 100 million pixels at 30 frames per second for high-resolution detail. Due to the number of agencies expected to access video over low-speed connections, the video quality has been optimized for lower-bandwidth web viewing. The video can be freely embedded into other websites and also be shared via Facebook, Twitter and other social media.

High-resolution, 360-degree video footage of the destruction in Haiti is also available upon request via the Immersive Media website.

The videos place viewers in the middle of an environment, giving them full control over what they see in a scene. With a simple click and drag of a computer mouse, online viewers can look sideways, up, down or all around in 360-degrees, while also pausing or zooming in and out. Each frame of the video is geo-coded, which will enable the planners and operations teams to pinpoint exact locations for relief, recovery and rebuilding operations. The video footage can be integrated with ESRI and other standard mapping applications.

Capturing and making the videos available has been a team effort, involving Immersive Media and IMTS (www.imtacticalsolutions.com), an Immersive Media Authorized Agent that specializes in working with military and special operations teams. The DRC Group (www.drcusa.com) and Integrated Electronic Technologies have been handling logistics, transportation, operations and government relations.

IMTS has significant experience in gathering surveillance video data for military, law enforcement and security applications. It has captured 360-degree video data in Iraq and elsewhere for advanced monitoring, protection and response. The 360-degree videos help operations teams identify risks and threats, monitor hostile environments from afar, and maximize the safety and understanding of their operations.

"All of us at Immersive Media are terribly saddened by the events of January 12th and want to do whatever we can to help improve the immediate and long-term situation in Haiti," said Myles McGovern, president and CEO of Immersive Media. "As previous natural disasters have shown, detailed imagery and assessments of the affected areas are critical to relief efforts and future planning. Since many of the first responders and government organizations are not on-site in Haiti, these 360-degree videos give them an unprecedented view of the devastation from the ground level."


About Immersive Media Corp.
---------------------------
Immersive Media Corp. is the pioneer and leading provider of 360-degree, full-motion, interactive video experiences. Its one-of-a-kind geodesic camera and full production services - including rental equipment, training, filming, post-production and distribution options - create high-resolution, immersive video for a variety of uses. From mapping and exploration to monitoring and surveillance to branding and entertainment, Immersive Media customers and agents produce the deepest, most engaging video experiences possible.

Immersive Media is a publicly traded company that is listed under the symbol "IMC" on the TSX Venture Exchange. For more information, please visit www.immersivemedia.com.


(C) 2010 Immersive Media Corp. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.


%SEDAR: 00021691E

For further information: David G. Anderson, Investor Relations, Tel: (866) 333-8817; Larry Logan, Media Relations, Tel: (503) 863-2940, llogan@immersivemedia.com

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Colorado Ice Climbing with Will Gadd




SlopeViews' Jason Rhodes interviews multi-sport athlete, Will Gadd, over the top of the ice wall he is climbing today in a 24 hours straight to benefit the dZi Foundation, who are working for the people of remote Himayalian communities. Learn all about Will's Endless Ascent.

Check back for 360° video OF THE ACTUAL CLIMB! That's right. Will Gadd tried on the 360° video camera for one of his 70 pitches today.

Become friends with SlopeViews on Facebook for an update when the video goes live online.

Here are some photos of one of Gadd's climbs with SlopeView 360 degree video camera.