Google Jump, a 360 camera system and processing software platform announced at last year’s Google I/O, is adding IMAX and Yi Technology to its roster of camera manufacturers.
Clay Bavor, Google’s VR team lead, took the stage during the I/O 2016 talk ‘VR at Google’ to tell the crowd about the company’s future addition to the Jump platform.
“Hollywood is asking us for a cinema-grade Jump camera. And we’re going to build them one – with IMAX,” Bavor told the crowd. “[IMAX] is going to be bringing their decades of experience, camera design, optics, sensors and more to Jump, and we’re incredibly excited what we’re going to do with them.”
Yi Technology, a China-based manufacturer, will also be using their 4k action cam in a new rig—presumably similar to Google’s 16 camera GoPro rig Odyssey. The Yi-built 360 camera system will be available later this year.
Yi’s current 4K action cam is priced at $249, half the MSRP of GoPro’s HERO4 Black.
This comes hot on the tails of Google’s big VR announcement surrounding Daydream, the company’s dedicated VR platform coming to a number of select smartphone manufacturers this fall.
Google is staying mum on any further details of the official Jump IMAX rig regarding content production partners, and have yet to reveal the camera system in question.