The IMAX Company has announced new initiatives that will push cinema technology even further than it has already done.

Going deep into the virtual reality chain, IMAX has presented its plans to develop a VR camera that will allow producers to shoot three-dimension content and yield a 360-degree film. The IMAX VR camera will be “a cinema-grade virtual reality camera.”

The cinema tech company has partnered with Google for what it expects to be an eighteen months project. Google will add its Jump platform to the game, and IMAX will release Google its footage to convert to VR content.

Giving the industrial specs, the camera won’t be available for consumers unless you’re willing to go bankrupt.

Aside from creating a cinematic virtual experience for the film industry, IMAX’s new initiatives include “VR experiences,” a plan to make virtual reality available to the wider public. The firm wants to introduce VR screens in malls and other public spaces for people to play games or watch VR videos.

The VR centers will open in six locations globally, starting with Los Angeles and continuing with China. The company has also allied with Starbreeze, the Swedish games studio, to be provided with its powerful headsets and games.

The VR cinema camera and the VR centers are parts of the same plan – probably that of taking over the VR world.

The bigger picture is: have people create VR content and screen it later in the IMAX VR locations.

The only problem remains the fact that the VR cinema camera has limited potential usage, and it’s pretty much tied to one place. This is a distribution problem.

The VR tech is “restricted” to just the early adopters and people with disposable income, and it also depends on a powerful tethered machine.

Mobile VRs address some of these issues, but other challenges like battery life and actual mobility factors, remain.

The IMAX VR centers would at least make virtual reality more accessible and work at the same time as a perfect marketing stunt.

As for now, these IMAX new initiatives sound like they will bring impressive new technology into the movie industry and we should expect to see in the future some mind-altering film experiences.

Image source: Wikimedia