Immersive Media

Immersive Media Company (IMC) is a digital imaging company specializing in spherical immersive video. The parent company Immersive Ventures is headquartered in Kelowna, British Columbia with Immersive Media Company offices in Dallas, Texas.

Immersive Media Company was founded in 1994 with a debut in 1995 of the world’s first full motion, fully immersive video movie. The movie featured a basketball game where the camera was placed on a tripod on the court. The video was debuted at the 1995 SIGGRAPH convention in Los Angeles, California.

Between 1994 and 2003, the company focused predominately on research and development.

In 2004, Immersive Media launched the Dodeca System, the first spherical camera that was all digital.

In 2006, IMC launched the GeoImmersive City Collect project, sending Volkswagen Beetles equipped with camera systems to collect georeferenced video of major streets in cities within the United States and Canada.

Initially introduced the 'street view' concept to Google and delivered the first 35 cities which were viewed by more than 75 million people in the first four days. Google subsequently cancelled its agreement with IMC and chose to build its own cameras for its on-going investment in immersive geo-media. Although street view imagery is displayed as stills by Google, IMC originally shot the footage as full-frame video, with backing film stills in .JPG format appearing as the video is paused. This is the method that IMC continues to use today for its street view and aerial coverage of cities.

In 2007, IMC acquired Freestone Systems, Inc. in Dallas, Texas, the manufacturer of the cameras. Their name was changed to IMC Sensors, Inc.

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