Niantic acquires company that maps the environment for augmented reality

Niantic has acquired 6D.ai. That company is a leader in 3d spatial mapping, according to Niantic. The employees of 6D.ai are going to work for Niantic. Both companies want to map as much of the world as possible for ar applications.

Niantic acquires 6D.ai because of the expertise the company has. For example, the company has developed technology to create 3D environments by means of crowdsourcing. Images from multiple smartphones can be used to map an environment with point clouds. It has not been disclosed what Niantic has paid for the acquisition.

After the acquisition, 6D.ai will continue to focus on developing applications to map the world in 3D. However, the company will phase out its existing SDK in the coming month. From now on, 6D.ai integrates its work into Niantic’s Real World Platform.

Niantic is known for its augmented reality games such as Pokémon Go, Ingress and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. The company has acquired several start-ups specializing in AR techniques in recent years. Niantic is also working with Qualcomm on AR glasses.

Demonstration video of 6D.ai from 2019