 | This article contains content that is written like an advertisement .(June 2023) |
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| Type of business | Private |
|---|---|
| Founder(s) | Linc Gasking Eugene d'Eon Sebastian Marino Joshua Feast |
| CEO | Hayes Mackaman |
| URL | Official website |
| Launched | 2014 |
| Current status | Active |
8i is a volumetric video company specializing in the capture, transformation, and streaming of real human holograms, on any device, for the Metaverse.
8i was founded in May 2014 [1] by Linc Gasking, Eugene d'Eon, Sebastian Marino and Joshua Feast [2] to develop software that can capture, analyze, compress, and recreate all the viewpoints required for volumetric capture. [3] [4] [5] [6]
In October 2015, 8i raised $13.5 million in Series A funding. Investors included RRE Ventures, Founders Fund Science, Samsung Ventures, and Dolby Family Ventures. [7] [3] [8] [9]
In January 2016, 8i premiered #100humans at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival as part of its New Frontier exhibit. [10] The program featured four VR projects that placed characters captured using 8i technology in distinct environments ranging from a dystopian wasteland to the Grand Canyon. [11] [12] [2]
In October of 2018, Hayes Mackaman became CEO and relaunched the company in 2019. Since then, he has focused on productizing core volumetric video technology.
Chris Milk is an American entrepreneur, innovator, director, photographer, and immersive artist. He is co-founder and CEO of Within, a virtual reality technology company, and co-founder of Here Be Dragons, a virtual reality production company. Milk began his career directing music videos and commercials for leading artists and brands, and in subsequent years became best known for bridging the gap between emerging technologies and new mediums for storytelling.
Eric Darnell is an American animator, storyboard artist, director, screenwriter, songwriter and occasional voice actor best known for co-directing Antz with Tim Johnson, as well as co-directing and co-writing Madagascar, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa and Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted with Tom McGrath, as well as the spin off Penguins of Madagascar (2014) with Simon J. Smith.
Chris Dixon is an American internet entrepreneur and investor. He is a general partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and previously worked at eBay. He is also the co-founder and former CEO of Hunch. He was #1 on the Midas List in 2022. Dixon is known as a cryptocurrency and Web3 evangelist.
Leap Motion, Inc. was an American company that manufactured and marketed a computer hardware sensor device that supports hand and finger motions as input, analogous to a mouse, but requires no hand contact or touching. In 2016, the company released new software designed for hand tracking in virtual reality. The company was sold to the British company Ultrahaptics in 2019, which rebranded the two companies under the new name Ultraleap.
Sketchfab is a 3D asset website used to publish, share, discover, buy and sell 3D, VR and AR content. It provides a viewer based on the WebGL and WebXR technologies that allows users to display 3D models on the web, to be viewed on any mobile browser, desktop browser or Virtual Reality headset.
High Fidelity is an American company headquartered in San Francisco, which formerly focused on social virtual reality. As of 2020, they appear to have pivoted to 3D audio software.
Rothenberg Ventures, known briefly as Frontier Technology Venture Capital, was an American venture capital firm based in San Francisco, California, and founded in 2012 by Mike Rothenberg. It invested in more than 100 companies, including Bustle, Robinhood, Revel Systems, and SpaceX, and focused its investments on virtual reality and other frontier technologies. As of January 2021, the firm's status with the California Franchise Tax Board is "forfeited".
Reality Labs, originally Oculus VR, is a business and research unit of Meta Platforms that produces virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) hardware and software, including virtual reality headsets such as Quest, and online platforms such as Horizon Worlds. In June 2022, several artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives that were previously a part of Meta AI were transitioned to Reality Labs. This also includes Meta's fundamental AI Research laboratory FAIR which is now part of the Reality Labs - Research (RLR) division.
castAR was a Palo Alto–based technology startup company founded in March 2013 by Jeri Ellsworth and Rick Johnson. Its first product was to be the castAR, a pair of augmented reality and virtual reality glasses. castAR was a founding member of the nonprofit Immersive Technology Alliance.
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uSens, Inc. is a Silicon Valley startup founded in 2014 in San Jose, California. The company builds interactive computer-vision tracking solutions. The uSens team has extensive experience in artificial intelligence (AI), computer vision, 3D Human–computer interaction (HCI) technology and augmented reality and virtual reality. uSens has been applying computer vision and AI technologies in AR/VR, Automotive and smartphones.
Adtile Technologies is an American company that develops and markets motion-sensing technology. The company’s headquarter is in San Diego, California. It is best known for its motion ads, which employs phone's sensors that supports motion as input to make advertisements interactive.
Gestigon is a software development company founded in September 2011, to develop software for gesture control and body tracking based on 3D depth data.
UVR Media, LLC is an American media company that operates UploadVR, a virtual reality-focused trade publication website.
Dražen Bošnjak is a composer and sound designer based in New York City. He founded Q Department, Mach1, and Department of Records. He has created soundtracks and sound design for a number of films, television shows, video games, advertisements, and more recently, virtual reality projects.
Within Unlimited, Inc, or commonly Within, is a studio based in Los Angeles developing the VR fitness service Supernatural on the Meta Quest. The company was founded by Chris Milk and Aaron Koblin in 2014 and initially created, acquired, and distributed 360-degree video, AR, and VR experiences across web, mobile, console, and headsets. The company was acquired by Meta Platforms, Inc., in February 2023.
CGTrader is a 3D model marketplace for VR/AR and CG projects, and professional 3D designer community. It was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Vilnius, Lithuania. CGTrader has attracted funding from Practica Capital, a seed and venture fund based in Vilnius, as well as from Intel Capital.
Volumetric capture or volumetric video is a technique that captures a three-dimensional space, such as a location or performance. This type of volumography acquires data that can be viewed on flat screens as well as using 3D displays and VR goggles. Consumer-facing formats are numerous and the required motion capture techniques lean on computer graphics, photogrammetry, and other computation-based methods. The viewer generally experiences the result in a real-time engine and has direct input in exploring the generated volume.
TheBlu is a digital media franchise that utilizes virtual reality technology to create 3D-rendered, interactive simulations of underwater environments in the world's oceans. Iterations of TheBlu have appeared as applications for the Samsung Gear VR and HTC Vive headsets and on the Steam and Oculus stores. In 2018, the most recent project in the franchise was launched using the Dreamscape Immersive platform, allowing up to six users to engage in a location-based experience. TheBlu was initially released as an interactive web application and screensaver by Wevr in 2011.
Varjo Technologies Oy, commonly referred to as Varjo, is a Finnish manufacturer of virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality headsets. The company was founded in 2016 by former Nokia and Microsoft executives. Varjo specializes in developing high-resolution devices that offer clarity comparable to the human eye.