Apple Fighting to Lead the Spatial Computing Market
Spatial computing is an industry that is growing at an impressive rate. With Google’s ‘Project Tango’ due to be released later this year, and 3D imaging startup Matterport’s $16 Million in Series-B funding, there is a lot of buzz surrounding who will be the next company to release this technology to the general public.
Late last year Apple acquired PrimeSense, 3D sensing company for around $ 360 million, and then very little was heard again on the subject. PrimeSence produced this video about where they had envisioned 3D technology would take us when combined with the internet of things:
Then, just recently, Apple released an application that hints at the companies intentions towards the 3D imaging industry. That app is called itSeez3D and is currently best suited for the iPad. Though relatively useless without a camera add-on, the application lets users browse existing images in the image gallery. The accompanying camera is called Structure Sensor, and is made by tech startup Occipital. It is specially designed to capture rich 3D images that are scanned and recreated on the cloud through the itSeez3D application. It is the world’s first iPad 3D scanner, which was also one of the most funded campaigns in Kickstarter.
“The app is targeted to consumers so that anyone who has an iPad and a Structure Sensor can make gorgeous color 3D models,” said Victor Erukhimov, CEO of Itseez. “The sensor provides 3D data for each of the pixels and the color image has three coordinate points to objects that you see in the scene.”
It will be interesting to follow what next steps Apple makes to further secure their place within the Spatial Computing market.
Trailer for the itSeez3D app for iPad:
