Varjo, renowned for its premium XR headsets, just unveiled a fresh venture that could revolutionize how enterprises create and explore digital environments. They’ve introduced Teleport, a smartphone-based 3D scanning app designed to swiftly generate photorealistic virtual spaces accessible in both virtual reality and on conventional displays.
Teleport isn’t your typical app; it lets users capture real-world scenes and recreate them digitally in just 5 to 10 minutes. This is a game-changer compared to the slower, traditional photogrammetry techniques. If you’ve got an iPhone or an iPad with iOS 17 or later, you’re in business. That means devices from the iPhone XR onward, plus the 8th generation iPad and newer, are all compatible.
Once you’ve scanned a space, these “digital twins” are yours to explore. You can check them out on your phone or PC, or dive deeper using Varjo’s XR headsets or other leading VR devices. The magic behind this is the cutting-edge Gaussian Splatting tech and NVIDIA’s GPU-trained generative models. The 3D models get processed in the cloud but are rendered on your device, so an Internet connection is only needed for downloading the models initially.
Teleport is priced at $30 a month, but Varjo is sweetening the deal with a seven-day free trial. This trial allows access to a plethora of captures—from basic to high-definition—via a web viewer, and the crème de la crème of quality through a desktop client.
This launch coincides with Varjo expanding its Series D funding round, attracting new investors like Beyond Capital, Nishikawa Communications, and NVIDIA. While the exact figures of this funding remain under wraps, Varjo has disclosed to Road to VR that this round brings their total funds to about €180 million, or roughly $188 million USD.
Varjo plans to use this capital to push the boundaries of XR hardware and software in industrial sectors. CEO Timo Toikkanen highlights how the company aims to harness AI and machine learning to blend real and virtual settings, boosting productivity and efficiency for their industrial clientele.
In the meantime, Meta is brewing a similar concept aimed at the general public. Back in September, they teased a product called Horizon Hyperscape through a demo that showcased their photorealistic vision. Soon, creators might be able to “build worlds within Horizon by using a phone to scan a room and then recreate it.” However, specifics on when this will become available are still under wraps.
