The company was based in 2012 by a gaggle of optics scientists and had originally centered on holographic knowledge storage before shifting its efforts to making shows for increased reality glasses, in line with its website.
In augmented reality, digital data is overlaid on the $64000 world as within the well-liked game Pokemon Go. Mobile phones use their camera system to try to to this on the phone' screen, however major technology corporations are athletics to make glasses which will show digital information on clear lenses.
Akonia same its display technology permits for "thin, transparent good glass lenses that show vibrant, full-colour, wide field-of-view images." The firm contains a portfolio of over two hundred patents involving holographic systems and materials, in line with its website.
Akonia additionally same it raised $11.6 million in seed funding in 2012 and was seeking further funding. it absolutely was unclear whether or not that funding ever materialized or who the firm' investors were
the acquisition worth and date of the acquisition couldn't be learned, although one govt within the increased reality business said the Akonia team had become "very quiet" over the past six months, implying that the deal might have happened within the half of 2018.
Apple contains a history of shopping for smaller firms whose technologies show up years later in its products. In 2013, Apple noninheritable alittle Israeli firm known as PrimeSense that created three-dimensional detectors. The iPhone X, launched last year, used an identical sensor to power biometric identification features.
Bloomberg last year reportable that Apple was developing increased reality glasses that would ship as early as 2020. Apple declined to touch upon its plans or products.
however the corporate last year launched augmented reality applications for its iPhones and iPads, and chief operating officer Tim Cook has known as increased reality a "big and profound" technology development.
"This is one in all those vast skinnygs that we'll recollect at and marvel on the beginning of it," Cook same of augmented reality on a call with investors last year.
The Akonia acquisition is that the 1st clear indication of however Apple may handle one of the foremost intimidating challenges in augmented reality hardware: manufacturing crystal clear optical displays thin and lightweight enough to suit into glasses almost like everyday frames with images bright enough for outside use and suited to mass producing at a comparatively low price.
increased reality headsets presently on the market cherish Microsoft Corp' HoloLense and startup Magic Leap' Magic Leap One each use darkened lenses and are supposed for indoor use. each also are intended for package developers testing the technology and value many thousand dollars.