Built on Niantic’s spatial map, our Visual Positioning System (VPS) now features one million VPS locations in full production available for developers and businesses to create immersive experiences across work and play scenarios.
We are building an AI model of the world which will change the way people and machines see, understand, and interact with the world.
Today, Niantic unveiled the Niantic Spatial Platform (NSP) business with a unified new website and extended product offering for unique spatial computing use cases across industries and solutions. NSP is Niantic’s new platform brand that puts the focus on our unique spatial map, a third generation 3D digital map built for spatial computing and the coming wave of immersive wearable outdoor AR glasses and related devices. This map is accessible today thanks to Niantic’s Visual Positioning System (VPS) which now has one million locations available for full production, location-based immersive experiences, with persistence of digital content and centimeter level precision. These shareable experiences work across devices thanks to development options in Unity, Web or natively.
New Products for Business Use Cases
Niantic Spatial Platform introduces new solutions for a variety of business use cases across four new categories initially.
Spatial Planning & Design presents locations in full 3D complexity allowing any professional to bring their expertise to any location no matter where they are in the world.
Warehousing & Logistics optimizes storage and delivery scenarios by adding dynamic information flow right on top of physical locations.
Audience Entertainment & Engagement brings new life to any physical venue where people gather with digital overlays, shared games and connected experiences.
Remote Collaboration helps teams and professionals work better together across locations on multiple hardware form factors from mobile phones to mixed reality and AR headsets.
Many of these solutions are built on the foundational tools in Lightship ARDK, Niantic’s SDK for Unity. With the introduction of Niantic Spatial Platform, those tools and services have been rebranded. Lightship users can continue to build location-based AR experiences while we further develop the NSP offering.
Evolving Niantic Lightship for Spatial Computing
Since we introduced Niantic Lightship, we have discovered our tools, technologies and services solve a multitude of real-world location-based business problems. This evolution of the SDK for Unity means that game developers and businesses can easily build experiences unique to their respective products and services. In short, that means Lightship developers like Reality Crisis, the team behind Rodney Mullen’s SKATRIX franchise, can continue to work with Lightship tools directly within Unity’s AR Foundation, while new Niantic Spatial Platform customers and partners like Sphere can build solutions that work for their customers.
Leveraging the Web To Build Immersive Spatial Experiences
With the introduction of Niantic Studio earlier this year, we set out to build the best platform to build immersive XR experiences across all mobile devices and headsets taking full advantage of any device that has a browser. Since launch, we’ve added powerful integrations like VPS for Studio and a suite of backend services that make Niantic Studio a full stack solution for XR developers.
Niantic Studio builds on the success of Niantic’s award-winning 8th Wall platform where thousands of developers have created engaging AR and location-based experiences on behalf of global brands with WebAR tools that are familiar and easy to build with, and require no app downloads for users making them as easy to use as pointing a mobile device.
This week at Web Summit in Lisbon, we are showcasing how Niantic Studio can bring together our vision for building real-world and spatial experiences with Moodometer built with Wonderment by Design. This experience combines Gaussian splats captured with Niantic Studio and our VPS to create a synced experience between the real-world and the captured splat. Web Summit attendees are encouraged to capture the mood of the event by sharing an emoji at the VPS-activated location at the venue or by interacting with the splat-based experience at the Niantic booth.
Expanding Capabilities and Addressable Devices
As Niantic further develops Niantic Studio, we’ll increase support for features that 8th Wall customers can use today, and over time we will migrate more 8th Wall features into Niantic Studio giving developers the widest selection of features and capabilities to build WebAR and XR experiences anywhere people have a browser. Look for more updates soon.
As new devices come to market we will continue to ensure our Niantic Spatial Platform tools and services give developers and businesses the best options to capture, locate and augment, all tied to our leading 3rd generation map. Currently supported devices include iOS and Android devices, as well as select spatial services for leading enterprise headsets like Magic Leap 2 and Apple Vision Pro, as well as leading consumer mixed reality headsets Meta Quest. Our vision for what spatial computing can unlock in the real-world is about enabling new experiences and transforming the way people work, connect and discover.