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Photo Credit: Infinity AR YouTube Photo Credit: Infinity AR YouTube
The startup has designed a product that lets you see 3D holograms as you go about your day
Israel-Flag-Small Japan-Flag-Small Simona WeinglassApr 08, 2015
Imagine walking down the street when a character from your favorite novel appears before your eyes. It’s Mr. Darcy, and he’s all sturm und drang and a hundred times more interesting than the ordinary people you meet on a daily basis. Would such a “virtual encounter” be a good or bad thing?
Thanks to companies like Infinity Augmented Reality Inc., which just raised $5 million in Series B funding, this kind of augmented reality experience will soon be a reality, so to speak.
InfinityAR allows people to interact with augmented content in their physical surroundings. All you need is a device with two cameras and InfinityAR’s technology will map the 3D environment and project 3D holograms as if they were a part of the real world. So you could walk along and interact with a dinosaur. You could see flowers blooming on a dreary winter’s day. Classrooms could use it to visualize 3D objects, soldiers to simulate warfare. And lonely people could potentially augment themselves some virtual companions.
To top it off, the content can be controlled using natural hand movements.
Cracking the Japanese market
The funds will be invested by Japan’s SUN Corporation, a prominent player in the Japanese gaming and mobile market, a New Zealand private investment fund called Singulariteam Fund II, and U.S.-based fund Platinum Partners Value Arbitrage Fund L.P.
The round contemplates a company pre-money valuation of $6 million, and will be directed towards further developing InfinityAR’s product and expanding into the Japanese market. SUN Corporation is a major player in the Pachinko industry, a form of gaming extremely popular in Japan.
“We are very excited about this financing round,” said Motti Kushnir, InfinityAR’s CEO, in a statement. “This is about so much more than the funds raised – it is about the strategic partnership. For us, SUN Corporation is the perfect gateway into the Japanese market and will help us further establish InfinityAR as a leading developer in the augmented reality space.”
The power of fantasy
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Photo Credit: PR
Kushnir could not be reached for comment, but it’s interesting that InfinityAR has chosen to pursue the Japanese market first. A recent article in the Atlantic Monthly describes Japan as at the forefront of blurring reality with the virtual. There is a word, hikikomori used to describe the half million to one million Japanese citizens who are so addicted to the Internet that they never leave their homes. Japan is also home to otome games, “first person visual novels that simulate romantic relationships.”
Is this healthy?
As the Philosopher’s Mail put it, escapism is not always bad. “Daydreams [are] wishes that one’s life were richer in possibilities than it is. To be more sympathetic to ourselves, almost everyone has daydreams, for our lives are necessarily incomplete and daydreaming is a highly creative and useful response to profound inadequacy and lack.”
Hopefully, 3D holograms will enhance and enchant our daily lives in ways we have yet to imagine. Just as with books, music, television, movies, the Internet, video games and other forms of escapism, it goes without saying that they are best enjoyed in moderation.
