This company is Changing Spatial Computing Forever On June 5th, 2023, Apple released its much-anticipated Vision Pro. While the device itself is groundbreaking, it's just part of a much larger story—and perhaps not the most significant part. The Vision Pro is an extraordinary piece of technology, but it's not entirely novel; it's essentially a VR headset with pass-through capabilities, something Meta already introduced with the Quest II in 2020.

On June 5th, 2023, Apple released its much-anticipated Vision Pro. While the device itself is groundbreaking, it's just part of a much larger story—and perhaps not the most significant part. The Vision Pro is an extraordinary piece of technology, but it's not entirely novel; it's essentially a VR headset with pass-through capabilities, something Meta already introduced with the Quest II in 2020. To be clear, the quality of these two devices is incomparable, but that's not the key point. The real innovation lies in how Apple framed its new VR headset, calling it a "Spatial Computing device," thereby solidifying a technology that already existed into a new paradigm for brain-computer interfaces.

"When you put on Apple Vision Pro, you see your world and everything in it." This is the opening claim of Apple's commercial, heralding a new era of contextualized, spatially aware information seamlessly merged with our visual field. This marks a new way to interact with information—no longer confined to staring at 2D screens or immersing ourselves in fully virtual worlds, but instead experiencing a blended visual reality. The concept is so compelling that even Meta, just months later, adopted a similar vision when launching its Quest III: "When you put on Quest 3, you see the physical room around you, only now it's a digital canvas." Sound familiar?

This shift is even more striking considering that Facebook, with its rebranding to Meta, was one of the primary advocates for the Metaverse paradigm. While there are similarities, the Metaverse and Spatial Computing represent distinctly different concepts. The former envisions a non-local, fully virtual environment, whereas the latter is conceived as a blend of physical reality with 3D content and information.

But what are the enablers of the Spatial Computing paradigm? The first enabler is obvious: hardware devices that allow us to blend our physical reality with 3D content. These include mixed reality devices such as smart glasses, pass-through VR headsets like the Vision Pro and Quest III, AR contact lenses, and even smartphones. The capabilities and usability of these devices for spatial computing are improving at an astonishing pace. Yet, this is only part of the puzzle. The second, equally critical enabler is Spatial Data. These devices need to understand their location in space—they require spatial awareness to accurately augment our visual field. This spatial data is represented by 3D maps of locations, and the race among tech giants to generate the most extensive and complete dataset of 3D maps for relevant locations worldwide is on.

We can think of these 3D maps as the portal to the future of Spatial Computing; without them, it's impossible to correctly anchor content to locations. Niantic was the first mover in Web2 to collect such data, starting with maps generated by Pokémon GO players worldwide. However, the data collected by Pokémon GO players is often inconsistent, as it's gathered by users focused on gameplay rather than mapping. This is likely why Niantic acquired Scaniverse in 2021—a company specialized in 3D object scanning—which later launched its world mapping campaign to bolster Niantic's Spatial Computing capabilities.

But Niantic isn't alone in this game. Over the Reality, a Web3 Spatial Computing company founded in 2018, began its "Map the World" campaign in December 2023, generating more than 60,000 3D maps of the most significant locations globally, positioning itself as a formidable competitor to Web2 giants like Niantic. How is this possible, you might ask? OVER leverages a Web3 paradigm known as DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks), where participants—mappers equipped with their smartphones—are economically rewarded for contributing data on key locations. This decentralized approach not only proves effective but also transcends the traditional Web2 business model, where users typically receive no economic rewards for providing valuable data to companies.

OVER uses these generated 3D maps to enable the publishing and visualization of geo-localized 3D content through its end-to-end solution, which includes tools for both publishing and visualization, accessible via an app or through simple QR-code activations.

However, geo-localized AR content is not the only use case for 3D maps in Spatial Computing. In fact, these 3D maps can be considered Digital Twins of the physical world, allowing for remote exploration of locations—think of it as a digital portal to any place on Earth.

In the coming months, OVER will launch its B2B program, enabling third-party software and communication agencies to leverage OVER's 3D maps and tech stack for their own applications. The future of Spatial Computing is here, and the race is only beginning.

As Spatial Computing continues to evolve, Over the Reality remains at the forefront of this transformation. To stay updated on their latest advancements, visit their website or follow them on Twitter.