One of the more fun demonstrations at NAB 2007 was a demonstration of a 3D world from a company called Immersive Media. Using their technology, I was able to take a virtual tour through a Florida community that had been devastated by a hurricane. Immersive Media has been driving around the country side in a souped up Beetle filming cities near you (or soon to be near you), so that Google can now provide street views of your local bergs on their Google Maps (Ken’s former condo complex).

Cynthia Brumfield has an interesting article at IP Democracy in which she points out privacy issues around such a service. It would be interesting to see what my Intellectual Property Attorney friends, Thomas Crowell and Angela Abshier would have to say about Google’s potential liabilities with regards to obtaining or not obtaining model release forms.

No doubt, this is just the beginning, as someday, these images will be replaced with low resolution and high resolution video. When combined with the 3D googles I am modeling below, it isn’t too hard to see that Google will be in the virtual travel game, as my friend Costas suggested a few years ago. Watch out travel industry, Google may be your new competitor.

technorati tags:Google, Immersive, Media, 3D, Video, Maps, Travel, Hospitality