I still remember the very first 360-degree photograph I ever saw.  I believe it was around the turn of the century on a Grolier Encyclopedia CD-ROM (for you youngsters, that’s what progressive folks had before Wikipedia).  I can’t recall where the image was from, exactly, but I do recall that it was some large plaza in Europe.  I was mesmerized just wandering back and forth, up and down throughout the 450px-wide image.

Since then, technology has come a long way.  We’ve seen 360-degree images in online marketing campaigns and real estate listings, and we’ve been able to travel the world on Google Street View for years.  But, the standard process has been to hire a professional with specialized gear and software to shoot, combine, and publish the images for suitable use.  That, however, could change with the iris360, an automated imaging system for capturing, compiling, and publishing 8k (in other words, wicked high res), 360-degree images to the web.

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