Metaio GmbH was a privately held

augmented reality Augmented reality (AR), also known as mixed reality (MR), is a technology that overlays real-time 3D computer graphics, 3D-rendered computer graphics onto a portion of the real world through a display, such as a handheld device or head-mounted ...

(AR) company that was acquired by

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Comput ...

in May 2015. Headquartered in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, with subsidiaries in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

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

, and

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, 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 t ...

(SDK) for programming PC, web, mobile applications, and custom offline augmented reality applications. Additionally, Metaio was the creator of Junaio, a free mobile AR browser available for Android and

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

devices.

History

Metaio was founded in 2003 in

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

Volkswagen Volkswagen (VW; )English: , . is a German automotive industry, automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Established in 1937 by German Labour Front, The German Labour Front, it was revitalized into the global brand it ...

that received a German grant. In 2005 Metaio released an 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 third-party developers could use to create commercial AR products. In 2006, Metaio released a browser plug-in for web-based AR applications. Shortly thereafter, Metaio launched an AR application for mobile devices, Junaio. From 2010 to 2012, Metaio presented a tracking application for print and television on a consumer mobile device and as a result, won the ISMAR Tracking Contest in 2011. Starting in 2006, Metaio has organized insideAR, an annual event for

developers, researchers, and businesses. 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 Android,

and

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

with an additional plugin for development in Unity for Android,

, and

OS X macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

platforms. Metaio Creator - The Metaio Creator is 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 – Junaio is an augmented reality browser for mobile devices. Metaio Engineer - Provides services from the visualization of future facilities, within a current production environment, illustrating working instructions on a component to deviate measurement between

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

and

reality Reality is the sum or aggregate of everything in existence; everything that is not imagination, imaginary. Different Culture, cultures and Academic discipline, academic disciplines conceptualize it in various ways. Philosophical questions abo ...

Press

In 2011,

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

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 ...

, announcing the company as "The World-Wide Leader in Augmented Reality Technology", In 2012, The Next Web said: "…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