Metaio GmbH was a privately held augmented reality (AR) company that was acquired by Apple Inc. in May of 2015t. Headquartered in Munich, Germany, with subsidiaries in San Francisco, California, New York City, New York and Dallas, Texas, Metaio provided a software development kit (SDK) for programming PC, web, mobile application and custom offline augmented reality applications. Additionally, Metaio was the creator of Junaio, a free mobile AR browser available for Android and iOS devices.
History
Metaio was founded in 2003 in Munich, Germany, by current CEO, Thomas Alt and current CTO, Peter Meier. The company grew out of an internal project within Volkswagen that received a German grant. In 2005 Metaio released the first end-consumer 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 enabled third-party developers to create their own commercial AR solutions. In 2006, Metaio released the first browser plug-in for web-based AR applications. Shortly thereafter, Metaio launched the first fully integrated AR application for mobile devices, Junaio. From 2010 to 2012, Metaio presented the first commercial 2-D Marker less Feature tracking application for print and television on a consumer mobile device and as a result won the ISMAR Tracking Contest in 2011.
Since 2006 Metaio has organized insideAR, an annual event solely dedicated to augmented reality developers, researchers and businesses. In 2013 insideAR was the world's largest Augmented Reality Conference.
In May 2015, Metaio cancelled its upcoming conference and discontinued all sales of its products. On May 28, 2015, media outlets reported that Apple Inc. 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, iOS and Windows with an additional plugin for development in Unity for Android, iOS, Windows and OS X platforms.
Metaio Creator - The Metaio Creator was 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 browse rfor mobile devices.
Metaio Engineer - Provides solutions for technical assignments from the visualization of future facilities, within a current production environment, over illustrating working instructions on a component to deviate measurement between virtuality and reality.
Press
In 2011 Reuters wrote an article about Metaio in collaboration with ST-Ericsson announcing the company as "The World-Wide Leader in Augmented Reality Technology." In 2012 The Next Web announced: "…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
ISMAR Tracking Contest Award for "World’s first mobile 3D Tracking," 2011
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), 2007
Der Innovationspreis für zukunftsweisende Business-Ideen (The Innovation Award for Forward-Thinking Business Ideas), 2004