Augmented reality (AR) continues to see new applications and uses almost daily as companies continue to try and push the immersive technology forward to new heights. It is companies like Jido Maps that are aiming to do just that as the startup is looking to deliver backend technologies that will allow for ever persistence AR experiences.
The company have recently raised over $2.1 million in seed round funding led by Kholsa Ventures, with participation from GREE, Seraph Group, Outpost Capital and many others. The funding allows the team at Jido Maps to develop their system which will allow for persistence within AR spaces to become a reality. The team refer to it as a ‘save button’ for the virtual worlds, which could offer exciting new opportunities for further AR experiences.
The API that the team at Jido Maps are working on use intimate understandings of a users spatial context to preserve AR experiences across users and devices. The research team has come from the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Labs and the Cornell Robot Learning Lab and are now ready to bring their idea to life.
One way to think about how the system will work is to say you are playing a game of noughts and crosses with a friend in AR. You get halfway through the match and then save before going out for an hour or two. Once you return to the location where you were initially playing the users can load the saved scene back up and continue playing. All the data is saved, including the positions, colour, shape and location of the experience.
This is being made position thanks to how the company is handling their AR API. The team are less focused on point cloud data and are focusing more on the underlying structure of a space and deciphering the relationship between objects and what fixtures are permanent. This approach will give the platform more strength in ignoring changes meaning scanning a location with people moving around is not an issue for the platform.
“To actually have a robust, integrated augmented reality experience you have to take a different approach,” Jido Maps CEO Mark Stauber said talking to TechCrunch. “The reason why we’re excited about our higher level approach to semantic data is because when we go into a space, we’re not there to catch a couple of nice interesting points about the scene, we actually try to understand the structure of a space and the relationship between objects…”
As Jido Maps continue to develop their API for a persistence AR worlds VRFocus will be sure to bring you all the latest. You can also see a short video below which gives an idea of how the platform will work and can grab the API for yourself here.
via Mint VR