Metaio unveils 3D depth sensor support for augmented reality

MUNICH. GERMANY & SAN FRANCISCO, USA: Metaio, unveiled support for new 3D depth sensing camera systems due to hit mobile devices this year.

Metaio CTO and co-founder Peter Meier, said: “Smartphones and tablets have historically made use of single, “2D” cameras primarily intended for image capture, but as smart devices have become more powerful, we are demanding more and more from the optics of these devices.”

Recent announcements from the likes of Google and Intel indicate new devices are hitting the market that can “see” the world in 3D via what are known as RGB-D (red, green, blue + depth) sensors. “With the ability to understand depth information, mobile devices will become significantly more powerful when it comes to Augmented Reality and computer vision tasks”.

The company today released a video demonstrating the advanced Augmented Reality capabilities of two devices enhanced with depth-sensing cameras: A windows PC tablet, and an iPad featuring the new Structure Sensor from Occipital. The video illustrates how added 3D sensors make Augmented Reality much more powerful by virtually eliminating the need for markers in many use cases, and even more importantly, solving the “occlusion” problem where virtual data is not correctly rendered into the real environment in a natural way.

Use cases include Augmented Reality gaming where digital objects react and interact with the physical environment, accurate indoor navigation that does not require a GPS signal and scanners that can extract 3D models from the environment as easily as shooting traditional video.