What is Capture Technology?

Most of us are familiar with virtual reality and augmented reality technologies, but what about capture technology? We sat down with Ed Wei, CTO of Mappedin, to discuss this exciting tech including what it is, how it works, who will benefit from it, and his predictions on when it will become mainstream.?

What is capture technology?

Capture technology takes real-world environments and turns them into digital assets that can be used in many different applications. For example, using a piece of equipment that has a camera, LiDAR sensors, and other sensors on it, you can walk around a room, scan it, and turn it into a digital asset.

What are the advantages and limitations of capture technology?

Traditionally, the limitation of capture tech is that the hardware itself is very complex and the pieces of equipment are large and expensive. In the past, I’ve seen companies put the equipment on wheels to push it around, or strap the equipment onto a huge backpack that they can carry while walking around a room. Since the equipment size and price tag is quite large, it's hard for the average person to massively adopt this technology.

The big advantage is that if you don’t have a floor plan, an architectural drawing, or a CAD drawing of a venue, capture tech is a great way for you to capture the real-world environment and generate a map.?

Why are you excited about this technology?

I’m excited about this technology because Apple has figured out how to miniaturize the equipment into an iPhone. With the new version of iOS, essentially anyone can go buy an iPhone or iPad and have capture technology on their device. The cost to have access to this technology is now very low.

Which organizations will benefit the most from this type of technology?

We can benefit from this technology because it's another way of creating a map. Other organizations such as retail brands will also benefit from this. For example, IKEA currently has a tool that enables you to put their furniture into a room, but that room isn’t an accurate reflection of your room. With capture technology, they could build an app that loads all their digital assets into the room you actually live in.??

Where do you see capture technology going?

People are going to come up with many different applications for capture tech. Head over to our blog to find out some of the use cases, and Ed Wei's predictions for when it will start becoming mainstream. You can also learn more about how Apple is using this technology here.