Meta's AR technology gets a new life as Campfire MR headset

A new mixed reality company called Campfire just came out of hiding to make it's big reveal this week. The company purchased the rights to now-defunct Meta's patented technology and reimagined it for remote enterprise collaboration. Campfire's headset should be available later this year.

Campfire, a small startup company from San Mateo, California, this week announced that it raised $8 million in venture capital to help bring its enterprise AR solution to market. The company has an innovative approach to using immersive technology for remote collaboration. It believes that the biggest problems with remotely sharing 3D content with multiple users have nothing to do with the virtual environment and everything to do with the orientation of virtual content in the physical environment.

Campfire's solution includes a headset that can display AR and VR experiences, an accessory that turns your smartphone into a tracked controller to manipulate the virtual environment, and a console that acts as an anchor point to link the virtual and physical worlds together.

The Campfire console marks the location to display virtual 3D objects, enabling product designers to share their work with teammates. The Campfire console makes it easy for everyone with a headset to see the same virtual objects anchored to the same space. Teams that work remotely can also use Campfire to work together. The Campfire console supports over-the-internet synchronization, enabling remote teams to work with the same content together.

Campfire is also developing software called Scenes, which allows product designers to pull their 3D models into the collaborative viewer. Campfire said the software would support 40 leading CAD and 3D file formats, so you should be able to pull your existing work into Campfire's platform.

Campfire has not yet released details about the price of the kit, but the company said it would release the hardware later this year.