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Niantic wants to build a richer 3D map of the world, and it’ll use its 2021 acquisition of Scaniverse to do that.
After a major update to the app, Scaniverse 4 will allow iOS users to scan landmarks by walking around them and recording video for about one to three minutes. Niantic has had functionality like this for a long time, which is how it’s built out its massive visual positioning system (VPS), which pinpoints a user’s location to a real world map with augmented reality experiences. Already, Niantic apps like Pokémon GO, Wayfarer and Ingress have created in-game incentives for users to upload scans, but this update makes the scans even more technically impressive.
As Niantic VP of Engineering Brian McClendon told TechCrunch, Scaniverse is now using a technique called Gaussian splatting, which captures more data points about an object to yield a more accurate, richer, and faster rendering.
On today’s TechCrunch Minute, we’re talking about why Niantic is investing in this technology, and how it could affect apps like Pokémon GO.
