Jaunt first cut their teeth on cinematic VR when they came out of stealth in 2014, not only producing some pretty high-quality 360 video throughout the years, but also a professional-grade 360 camera dubbed NEO. Now under new management, the company is striking out in a new direction, and revealing a new AR project for its Jaunt XR Platform that makes volumetric video capture a relatively cheap and easy process.
The project, which is still in R&D, uses what the company calls a “simple capture stage with a streamlined setup,” which uses the company’s proprietary streaming tech that can send volumetric captures to AR-capable devices.
According to Venture Beat’s Dean Takahashi, who visited Jaunt’s San Mateo, California headquarters, the company has created a pipeline that uses six Intel RealSense depth cameras; the resultant images are then automatically stitched into a single 3D avatar.
Takahashi says the experience was “quick and seamless,” and doesn’t use the sort of dedicated green screen studios like Microsoft’s Mixed Reality Studio, which has captured the likes of Buzz Aldrin, George Takei, Reggie Watts, and Max Frost to name a few. A setup like Microsoft’s requires a large space, a 35-foot diameter area outfitted with 106 cameras (53 RGB and 53 infrared), reports Variety. Jaunt’s capture area appears to be carved from a standard office space, something you could hypothetically set up and put away as needed.
What’s more, Jaunt promises real-time processing, so you could livestream your volumetric captures to anyone with an AR-capable device such as an iPhone.
“At Jaunt, we’re always thinking about expanding the boundaries of storytelling by exploring the full immersive content spectrum; from virtual reality, to augmented & mixed reality, volumetric, and even new formats that our advanced development teams are working on,” said Arthur van Hoff, Jaunt CTO & Founder. “But our primary focus is empowering our partners to harness these evolving technologies, using the Jaunt XR Platform as the foundation for delivering their cutting-edge immersive content. Our ongoing research and development will serve as a cornerstone of the XR Platform’s evolution, and our volumetric capabilities are only the first step in this initiative.”
The Jaunt XR Platform, which was announced late last year, is a B2B solution created to stream AR, VR, and 2D assets across multiple devices, and allow companies to make and distribute their own branded content. Jaunt’s other initiatives include additional volumetric streaming tech, immersive content driven by machine learning, and technologies to enable premium XR experiences.