Saturday, October 12

Facebook Acquire AI Location Accuracy Startup Scape Technologies

Facebook has acquired computer vision start-up Scape Technologies.

The deal for London-based Scape could be around $40M, according to the report, and it says filings indicate that Facebook has more than 75% of the company.

They also indicate that VC representatives on Scape’s board have been replaced by two Facebook execs.

Scape allows developers to build apps that call for location accuracy better than that offered by GPS, using a “visual positioning service.” While it focused initially on augmented reality, Scape is looking to enable any camera to understand its surroundings.”

“Rather than rely on 3D maps built and stored locally, Scape’s visual engine builds and references 3D maps on the cloud, allowing devices to tap into a ‘shared understanding’ of an environment. The first product is an SDK for mobile devices that allows augmented reality content to be anchored to specific locations, outside and at an unprecedented scale.”