6D.AI

6D.ai is a spatial mapping company that develops a 3D map of the world from smartphone snaps. 6D.ai provided a scanning technology that allowed for the rapid development of digital twins of real environments. The platform accomplished this by networking smartphones uploading image data to a cloud where these images were stitched together to generate a 3D map. This map can subsequently be synchronized across a multiplicity of smartphones. The technology was impressive for the still-nascent AR industry leading to the startup's acquisition by Niantic in 2016. Henceforth, 6D.ai became part of the Niantic Real World Platform that equips developers with the ability to integrate the real world into their virtual products. In effect, 6D.ai is core to Niantic's efforts to build an AR Cloud as the company's research and engineering teams scramble to develop spatial computing technologies that will facilitate the creation of better and more qualitative augmented reality experiences where millions of players will be adding points of interest to a 3D map of the world.