6D.ai

6D.ai was a specialized technology firm focused on developing application programming interfaces (APIs) for augmented reality, positioning itself as a key enabler of the "AR Cloud." The company was founded in 2017 by CEO Matt Miesnieks and Chief Scientist Victor Prisacariu, spinning out of Oxford University's prestigious Active Vision Lab. Miesnieks brought extensive entrepreneurial and executive experience in the AR and mobile infrastructure space, having founded previous AR startups like Dekko and holding roles at Samsung and Layar. Prisacariu, an Associate Professor at Oxford, contributed deep academic and research expertise in computer vision, 3D reconstruction, and SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping).

The core of 6D.ai's business was providing an SDK for developers that used standard smartphone cameras to generate a real-time, three-dimensional mesh of the physical world. This technology allowed for the creation of a persistent, cloud-based, and crowdsourced 3D map. Its business model was centered on offering these tools to developers to create sophisticated AR applications for industries ranging from gaming and entertainment to enterprise solutions. The company generated revenue by charging for the use of its SDK, with a transaction-based pricing model that became commercially available in 2019.

The product enabled key AR features that were previously difficult to implement reliably on mobile devices. These included persistence, allowing virtual objects to remain in a fixed real-world location between sessions; occlusion, where virtual objects are correctly hidden by real-world objects; and multi-user experiences, where several users could interact with the same AR environment simultaneously. This was achieved by processing data on-device in real-time while also contributing to a larger, shared 3D world model in the cloud. A significant milestone was the company's acquisition by Niantic, the creator of Pokémon Go, in March 2020. The acquisition integrated 6D.ai's team and technology into Niantic's Real World Platform, aiming to accelerate the development of planet-scale AR experiences.

Keywords: 3D reconstruction, spatial computing, augmented reality API, AR Cloud, computer vision, real-time 3D mapping, SLAM, mobile AR, world mesh, AR persistence, multi-user AR, occlusion, Niantic acquisition, Matt Miesnieks, Victor Prisacariu, Oxford University spinout, AR SDK, developer tools, spatial data, 3D semantics, mobile sensors, AR platform