Metaio GmbH was a privately held

augmented reality Augmented reality (AR) is an interactive experience that combines the real world and computer-generated content. The content can span multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory and olfactory. AR can be de ...

(AR) company that was acquired by

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company b ...

in May of 2015. Headquartered in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, with subsidiaries in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, Metaio provided a

software development kit A software development kit (SDK) is a collection of software development tools in one installable package. They facilitate the creation of applications by having a compiler, debugger and sometimes a software framework. They are normally specific to ...

(SDK) for programming PC, web, mobile application and custom offline augmented reality applications. Additionally, Metaio was the creator of

Junaio Junaio was an augmented reality browser designed for 3G and 4G mobile devices. It was developed by Munich-based company Metaio GmbH. It provided a Creator application and an API for developers and content providers to generate mobile Augmented Re ...

, a free mobile AR browser available for

Android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...

and

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

devices.

History

Metaio was founded in 2003 in

, by current CEO, Thomas Alt and current CTO, Peter Meier. The company grew out of an internal project within

Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German Automotive industry, motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a ...

that received a German grant. In 2005 Metaio released the first end-consumer AR application called KPS Click & Design in Germany, which allowed the user to put virtual furniture into an image of their living room. Metaio also released the Unifeye Platform, which enabled third-party developers to create their own commercial AR solutions. In 2006, Metaio released the first browser plug-in for web-based AR applications. Shortly thereafter, Metaio launched the first fully integrated AR application for mobile devices,

. From 2010 to 2012, Metaio presented the first commercial 2-D Marker less Feature tracking application for print and television on a consumer mobile device and as a result won the

ISMAR The Ismar is a right tributary of the river Câlniștea in Romania. It discharges into the Câlniștea in Naipu. It flows through the villages Radu Vodă, Dimitrie Cantemir, Izvoarele, Chiriacu and Petru Rareș Petru Rareș (), sometimes k ...

Tracking Contest in 2011. Since 2006 Metaio has organized insideAR, an annual event solely dedicated to

developers, researchers and businesses. In 2013 insideAR was the world's largest Augmented Reality Conference. In May 2015, Metaio cancelled its upcoming conference and discontinued all sales of its products. On May 28, 2015, media outlets reported that

had bought the company, and finalized the purchase on May 21 or 22.

Products

Metaio offered products focused on product design, engineering, operations, marketing, sales and customer support. Metaio SDK - The Metaio SDK allows developers to use content without prior encryption. No offline tools or server side encryption is needed when generating and deploying 3D assets and tracking patterns. The SDK is currently supported on

and

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

with an additional plugin for development in

Unity Unity may refer to: Buildings * Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building * Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper * Unity Buildings, Liverpool, UK; two buildings in England * Unity Chapel, Wyoming, Wisconsin, US; a h ...

for

and

OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

platforms. Metaio Creator - The Metaio Creator was an augmented reality software that allows users to create a complete AR scenario without specialized programming knowledge. Metaio CVS - Metaio Continuous Visual Search (CVS) manages marker searching online for image recognition. Metaio Cloud - Allows developers to upload download, store and manage content online. Junaio –

is an augmented reality browser for mobile devices. Metaio Engineer - Provides solutions for technical assignments from the visualization of future facilities, within a current production environment, over illustrating working instructions on a component to deviate measurement between

virtuality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video g ...

and

reality Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, r ...

Press

In 2011

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

wrote an article about Metaio in collaboration with

ST-Ericsson ST-Ericsson was a multinational manufacturer of wireless products and semiconductors, supplying to mobile device manufacturers. ST-Ericsson was a 50/50 joint venture of Ericsson and STMicroelectronics established on 3 February 2009 and dissolved 2 ...

announcing the company as "The World-Wide Leader in Augmented Reality Technology." In 2012 The Next Web announced: "…While there are a slew of apps that tap GPS, image recognition, visual search and other elements of augmented reality, Junaio does a good job of merging them all."

Awards

* Auggies Award for the "Best Campaign," 2014 * Volkswagen Augmented Reality Tracking Challenge, 2013 * ISMAR Best Poster, 2013 * Auggies Award for "Best AR Demo," 2012 * Augmented Planet Reader's Choice Award for "Best AR Marketing Campaign" and "Best AR Developer Toolkit" for the Metaio Mobile SDK, 2011 * Best Android AR App Ever – Second Place for "Best App Ever," 2011 * Augmented Planet Reader's Choice Award – Runner up for "Best Augmented Reality," 2010 * "Innovation Spreis Des Jahres" or "Innovation Award Of the Year "for "Virtual Dressing Room," 2010 * "I Caught Their Eye" Award, Winner in the Innovation for Tomorrow category, 2009 * First Prize at "Deutscher Internetpreis" (German Internet Award), 2007metaio gewinnt Deutschen Internet-Preis
Retrieved 2007/11/12

References

External links

Metaio home page - website for Augmented Reality

Metaio Augmented Reality Blog

Junaio home page

{{Authority control Augmented reality Software companies established in 2003 Software companies of Germany 2003 establishments in Germany Companies based in Munich Apple Inc. acquisitions 2015 mergers and acquisitions