April 13, 2001

5:14 PM

iPix Movies are cool interactive movies, you choose the angle you view while it is playing and you can turn to any angle, up, down, left, right and zoom. This is pretty wild but takes a broadband connection so if you are a dial up user, forget it. I want the little helicopter the camera is on, very cool.
posted by me myself and i (11 comments total)

That's about as useful and compelling as Digiscent's iSmell technology, and we know how that turned out.
posted by waxpancake at 6:25 PM on April 13, 2001

Boy that reads like a marketing statement...

noise > signal?
posted by DragonBoy at 10:02 PM on April 13, 2001

Well, they can be cute for sidebar items in news stories, e.g. an interactive view of an EP-3 airplane. Plus, they've been around a while and aren't exactly something fresh. FYI.
posted by dhartung at 10:11 PM on April 13, 2001

My employer used these for an interactive service demo at the Titanic artifacts exhibition back in early 1999...it was great for entertaining school groups and showing off the powers of broadband, yes.
posted by Electric Elf at 11:28 PM on April 13, 2001

I found them because they use them to show different views at Our Lucaya, a resort in the Bahamas I am going to next week. It seemed pretty good for that type of application. (rebuttal: Sorry it wasn't fresh or compelling, I just liked the movies and no one had linked to it here before so I linked it, not as a marketing statement, just as a link)
posted by me myself and i at 5:07 AM on April 14, 2001

Not to pile on mm&i, but this sure was cool a few years ago when it came out. Even with the broadband pipe, the small video window takes away from the experience. I don't think this is quite as lame as "iSmell" (a very unfortunate name), just not what's on the edge of cool anymore.

Thanks for the link anyway, mm&i
posted by briank at 5:45 AM on April 14, 2001

I'm new here, so I'm afraid "mm&i" just goes over my head...

Anyway, isn't this what used to be called a "bubble cam" back around '98 and it was supposed to be used to show off a car's interior over the web?
posted by Spanktacular at 5:56 AM on April 14, 2001

Spanktacular:

As it turns out, a friend and former roommate of mine is the son of one of the original founders of iPIX. As a result, I'm semi-versed in the technology. The main difference between these and the photo bubbles are that these are video. The car interior shots were taken with a special camera that produces static images which were stitched together in software.

Also, "mm&i" is the abbreviated form for "Me Myself and I", the original poster. :-)
posted by tsitzlar at 9:55 AM on April 14, 2001

Same principle, yes.

MMI, just take this as encouragement to try harder next time.
posted by dhartung at 9:56 AM on April 14, 2001

known in the MACR Director and QT VR-Community: iPix sucks.

http://www.panoguide.com/about/ipixpolicy.html
posted by dogfood at 11:03 AM on April 14, 2001

I had the opportunity to try out the iPix Movie hooked up to a motion-tracking video headset at the TED11 conference. Needless to say, it was pretty damn cool and I can see it being very useful for showing off buildings, resorts, planes, pretty much anything.
posted by adrianhon at 2:39 PM on April 15, 2001