TOP NEWS

8i Gets $27M For Photorealistic, Augmented Reality Humans

Los Angeles- and New Zealand-based 8i, which has created technology which captures humans and creates photo-realistic, 3-D "holograms" which people can interact with in augmented reality from any angle, has raised $27M in a funding round, the company said on Monday. The funding was led by Time Warner, and also included Baidu, Hearst, Verizon, One Ventures, Seed & Speed, and existing investors. The company's technology uses multiple cameras to create a 3D model of human beings which appears within augmented reality and can be seen from any angle. The company has an Android app, for Tango-enabled devices, which lets users interact with those "holograms". The company, led by Steve Raymond, says its team comes from Weta Digital, YouTube, NVIDIA, Google, Valve, Microsoft Research, PayPal, Sony Computer Entertainment, DreamWorks, Yahoo!, Viacom and Pixar.