This is of course if you are interested in buying any of iPIX assets that are going to be sold through an auction in the near future.

Tranzon Fox, the company selected to handle the auction, has prepared an Asset Information Package CD which contains 17,000 pages of documentation with PTO file wraps, title searches, reference patent file wraps, product inventory and information, and an equipment listing. BUT in order to receive this CD, first you have to sign and return a confidentiality agreement to Tranzon Fox.

Interested in buying a piece of iPIX. You can download a 22-page pdf file issued by Tranzon of what you need to know.

The World Wide Panorama is upon us again and this event’s theme is Transportation. The theme page will be officially available online on the 9th October 2006.

My transportation subject is the camel. I went (twice) to the Camel Market in Birqash, Giza and spent the early mornings with the traders. These camels are scary creatures especially to a big city boy like me. They are HUGE and if they feel annoyed by your presence they will bite, spit or run over you.

I’ll post some of the VR images soon.

IVRPA will be participating in Photokina 2006 which is from Tuesday 26th September till Sunday 1st October. So if you are planning to visit the biggest show for digital imaging, drop by at our booth in hall 05.1. You can download the official Photokina floorplan here.

If you can’t make it, you can still see daily panoramas posted by IVRPA’s mini-website for this year’s Photokina.

The transcript of the 2nd online chat is available here. The discussion was to answer questions iPIX photographers/developers have about the present situation after the bankruptcy of IPIX Corporation and auctioning of its assets.

Host:
Michael Quan - President of IVRPA

Companies:
Andrew Baddeley - Head of Immersive - NMI Security plc. UK/European resellers for IPIX
Dominique Pouliquen - Realviz CEO and co-founder
Ford Oxaal - Minds-Eye-View Inc. / pictosphere.com
Representative from Voyager360.com

Photographers:
Doug Aurand - Albuquerque, NM, USA
Matthias Taugwalder, Switzerland
George Row - Ireland
John Vicenti - USA / Moderator of IPIX-DEV Yahoo Group

The complete transcript: click on the ‘more..’ link below

Technorati Tags: 360, ivrpa, middle east, photography, real estate, virtual tours, international, ipix, egypt, panorama, VR

(more…)

iPIX customers have reported that the online iPIX store will debit your credit card and will NOT issue you a new license for IPIX Interactive Studio software. But it is safe at the moment to download the free software IPIX Real Estate Wizard 3.5 and buy iPIX keys for it.

UPDATE: Please note the above issue was in 2006.  The situation may have changed since.

Technorati Tags: 360, egypt, international, ipix, middle east, panorama, photography, real estate, virtual tours, VR

IVRPA will host a second online chat to discuss possible alternatives and solutions photographers and developers may have after the demise of iPIX Corporation. The time was chosen to suit photographers/developers in Europe, Middle East and Africa.

When: Tuesday 12 September 2006, 3.00 PM UTC/GMT (Time in your city?)

Where: AOL instant messenger. Look for chat “IVRPA”.

I had shared the outcome of the first online chat in a previous post.

Tranzon Fox, the company responsible to auction iPIX assets, is probably behind this move. It is a good move, Tranzon is showing potential bidders what they are buying into.

The good news is that for now iPIX photographer/developers can download IPIX Real Estate Wizard 3.5 and buy keys for it too. I can’t confirm the same for IPIX Interactive Studio software but I wouldn’t advise anyone to invest now in a pricey software of a bankrupt company.

VR photographers had an online chat hosted by IVRPA to discuss alternatives available for iPIX photographers. Using IPIX Real Estate Wizard was mentioned as an aspirin for the current pain. Waiting to see who buys the photographic side of IPIX , since this company would be interested in continuing the sale of IPIX keys and IPIX image hosting. Or switching to other software that stitch fisheye-captured images. You can read the complete transcript on IVRPA website.

Michael Quan, President of the International Virtual Reality Photography Association (IVRPA) is hosting an online chat to answer the many questions iPIX photographers and developers may have after iPIX Corporation products have been discontinued.

Attending this chat are VR photographers who had been expert iPIX photographers like Susan Johnson, Scott Highton and Hoyle Koontz.

When: SUNDAY 3 September 2006, 8:30 pm New York City time (Time in your city?).
Where: AOL instant messenger. Look for chat “IVRPA”.

If you have any questions about the chat, please drop a line to Michael Quan. The full text for this announcement is available on the IVRPA website.

iPIX Corporation assests will be soon sold to the highest bidder. Tranzon Fox, the sales agent responsible to handle the auction, announced that a list of the offering package and sales procedure will be available in a few weeks. This auction is expected to catch the interest of international companies of all sizes.

The following is from Tranzon Fox press release:

“We plan to identify qualified bidders for the IPIX assets and establish defined bidding procedures so all interested buyers will have the opportunity to bid on the assets.”

IPIX assets will be divided into three categories: a 360-degree Digital
Immersive Video business line, including the CommandView(TM) product line; the Still Photography business line, including the Host@IPIX self-service management for immersive image distribution; and the Gigapixel Camera patents, an experimental high-resolution camera developed through a federal government research project. Buyers will be able to bid on individual and multiple patents, trademarks, plus video equipment and accessories. The brand name “IPIX” also is available for purchase.

A lot of discussions are going on about what happens next now that Ipix has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection and shut down operations. I am specifically concerned who might buy the patents this company owns which have to do with using fish-eye lens (180˚) to create spherical images.

My guess is as good as yours. But interestingly Microsoft’s name has come up a few times. It is no secret that Microsoft research labs have been playing around with photo and video 360˚ images and are expected to release products soon.

I’d also like to through in a wild guess. Google. Why not? They have the money, they are into everything now and if Microsoft has a head start on them in 360˚ imaging, why not buy something that already exists, for a cheap price.

It will be interesting to follow iPix news in the following few weeks.