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NantMobile, an object recognition and augmented reality company based in Culver City, just raised a $30 million funding round. The company has developed object recognition and augmented reality technology for mobile devices. In total the company has raised $60 million, including $15 million raised in May. NantMobile is founded and led by healthcare entrepreneur Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong.
NantMobile’s object recognition technology identifies 3D objects, text, video, sound and barcodes in real-time and then hyperlinks whatever is being looked upon to additional information. That technology is available to consumers via NantMobile’s iD Browser, a mobile app.
iD Browser represents one of NantMobile’s efforts in making the physical world browsable. By being able to recognize 3D objects and sound, then hyperlinking those objects and sounds to the Internet, the company envisions reworking the classic search engine around our everyday physical realities.
The company has also developed augmented reality technology with Jakks Pacific, a toy maker, in a joint venture called DreamPlay. The product of this joint venture is an app called Ariel’s Music Surprise. By pointing an iPad at certain toys, users can interact with overlaid Disney characters.
“It’s the first recognition engine on a mobile device, a mobile computing platform, in this case an iPad. Which it’s recognizes a 3-dimensional object in real-time. And once its done that recognition, we have an augmented reality overplay. Therefore you can actually interact with the physical toy in the virtual space,” said Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, founder and CEO of NantMobile, to Bloomberg television in 2013, shortly after the app launched.
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Despite the Jakks Pacific partnership and the iD Browser app, the company has yet to see main-stream adoption of its technology. Most of its partnerships appear to be based around the possibilities of the technology, not on serious revenue generating products.
Augmented reality has had commercial success mostly in the gaming industry with the Microsoft Kinect & Sony PS4. Last fall, the PS4’s debut on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon made quite an impact and showed the possibilities for augmented reality.
What makes NantMobile’s technology interesting is its ability to recognize 3D objects without a user facing camera, controllers or game console, as it only runs as an iPhone or iPad app.
NantMobile is a subsidiary of Nantworks, an umbrella company that also includes NantHealth, a healthcare tech company. This $30 million funding round was separate from NantHealth, though the two companies share some technology.
