Niantic, the developer behind Pokémon Go and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, has acquired a company called 6D.ai to work on further AR projects.
Already considered a market leader in the Augmented Reality space, Niantic clearly has big plans for the future.
But what does this actually mean? Let's have a look at the announcement to see what's going on...
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What is 6D.ai?
As the official announcement from Niantic explains, 6D.ai is a relatively new company:
"Founded in 2017, 6D.ai was spun out from Oxford University’s Active Vision Lab, building computer vision-based technologies and developer tools that solve fundamental AR problems, such as 3D reconstruction and AR persistence."
Niantic will now "be able to leverage 6D.ai’s deep expertise and significant breakthroughs in AR research and engineering to further our ongoing work in support of our mission."
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What next for Niantic?
Working with the newly acquired team from 6D.ai, Niantic is "building a dynamic, 3D map of the world so we can enable new kinds of planet-scale AR experiences."
Teasing what the future could hold through this new collaboration, Niantic CEO John Hanke says this:
"Imagine everyone, at the same time, being able to experience Pokémon habitats in the real world or watch dragons fly through the sky and land on buildings in real-time. Imagine our favourite characters taking us on a walking tour of hidden city gems, or friends leaving personal notes for others to find later.
"These are just a few examples of the kinds of experiences that large-scale AR mapping can enable. We're looking forward to working with the 6D.ai team as we continue charting our course forward."
The future of AR could be truly huge, then.
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