Non-MP Cameras to Publish to Matterport4281
Pages:
1
 WGAN ForumFounder & WGAN-TV Podcast Host Atlanta, Georgia |
DanSmigrod private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Hi All, Non-Matterport Cameras to Publish to Matterport That's the headline I could imagine that we will see in a press release from Matterport. Or, at least, I hope so. While this is something that I have been thinking about for a while, I had a "ah ha" moment at SPAR 3D Expo & Conference this week (3-6 April 2017) seeing cameras such as: ✓ Leica BLK360 ✓ LASiris VR ✓ NavVis M3 Trolley These are just three examples of Cameras that capture scanning data that - in my opinion - could publish to Matterport (if Matterport would allow it). What Matterport has accomplished, so far, is like creating electricity and the light bulb at the same time. Matterport had to develop simultaneously: ✓ Camera + Scanning Data ✓ App to run the Camera ✓ Cloud Processing ✓ Cloud Hosting ✓ Content Delivery Network ✓ (And more ...!!!) Now that Matterport has traction, it's time to help facilitate other camera/scanner companies to add a "Publish to Matterport" button. By making the Matterport platform open to other camera manufacturers, it would add value to: ✓ camera companies ✓ Matterport ✓ Photographers In some ways, Matterport is like American Online (AOL). For those old enough to remember, AOL was the "on ramp" to the internet. It was our training wheels. But, AOL failed to have a business-class solution and we all graduated from our training wheels - upgraded to other solutions. Today, Matterport is our "on ramp" - our training wheels - to scanning, 3D and VR. Matterport has created an end-to-end solution to make it easy, fast and seamless to capture, view and share 3D and VR (and derivative works known (2D schematic floor plans, object file, point cloud) and un-known (APIs to license content, for example). But ... For many of us, we would like: ✓ much better photography (and access to our raw imagines) ✓ a solution designed for huge spaces (captured faster) ✓ a solution that enables publishing to Google Street View ✓ a solution with better scanning data ✓ a solution that can publish to other (amazing) platforms [Side Note: the scanning data is at least as valuable to the appropriate clients as the photography. You'll make more money from better quality point clouds (.pts).] If you are still with me here, now that Matterport has traction, it no longer needs to be the only camera that can publish to the Matterport platform. Nor should Matterport want it to be the only Camera. (Would Google Street View limit itself to one 360º spherical camera?) While today – Matterport is a Camera, Company and Platform – it really should just be a Company and Platform and embrace other companies cameras/scanners. Matterport makes money from recurring revenue. Today, that's processing and hosting. And, why it may make some money on 2D schematic floor plans and TBD ancillary revenue streams (perhaps charging for .pts, .obj), I could imagine that the much biggest business opportunity for Matterport is licensing 'its' content via APIs (such as 2D schematic floor plans when you look-up a house on Zillow). But, before that can happen, Matterport needs to capture more than 2 percent of the residential real estate listings, for example. It needs to be the mother-of-all-visualization-data. And, to do that, it needs more and better cameras publishing to its platform. What's exciting about seeing these new cameras – some prototypes with shipping dates "coming soon" / "summeer 2017" or even "available now" or "pre-order now" – they do EXACTLY what the Matterport camera does today. ✓ Better Photography. ✓ Better Scanning. ✓ Faster Photography and Scanning. We can only hope that Matterport is already way ahead of me thinking - and doing - about integrating amazing, better camera solutions to publish to Matterport. What do you think? Should - and will - Matterport enable other cameras to publish to the Matterport platform? Am I technology naive to think that other camera/scanners could easily publish to Matterport, if Matterport allowed that? And would other camera companies even be interested in enabled publish to Matterport? Best, Dan P.S. By the way, among the video interviews I did at SPAR 3D Expo and Conference were with executives from NCTech (iris360 Pro, LASiris VR); Leica (BLK360) and NaVvis (M3 Trolley). Look for the videos within the next 10 days. (When I eventually make it back to Atlanta and a super-fast internet connection to handle all the video uploads. |
||
| Post 1 • IP flag post | ||
|
Viewing private msg quote post Address this user | |
| It'd be cool to see this happen and seems on the surface to make sense for Matterport if such a situation arose. If they remain to be the only ones with smooth transition tech then I guess other providers would like to utilise it too. | ||
| Post 2 • IP flag post | ||
 TosoliniProductions Bellevue, Washington |
Tosolini private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I'd agree that for MP would be a good move to open up their platform to other hardware companies. The hardware business is a difficult one and for those manufacturers, developing their own software platform would be difficult too. Partnerships seems a win-win to me. | ||
| Post 3 • IP flag post | ||
|
ron0987 private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I think the biggest issue is can Matterport translate the data. The current camera uses IR and calculates surfaces to build the walls to develop the walk thru. The cameras/equipment you speak of use point clouds to develop surfaces and I would think it would take a whole different conversion process. I would love to see a third-party developer create an independent software to use the data. Now Faro’s new scanners use a higher quality HDR photo output. The new Ntech scanner that was just released also has a great photo. But again these cameras are way more expensive and is the cost worth it? So depending on your business model is it worth the investment. | ||
| Post 4 • IP flag post | ||
Frisco, Texas |
Metroplex360 private msg quote post Address this user | |
| This is sort of like telling the iGuide folks that they should support the Ricoh Theta S and create a kit with a lidar scanner to allow 3rd party cameras... My 2c is that both companies have a system that is highly tuned and optimized to their specific cameras and supporting a wide range of devices is not of interest. Matterport -is- supporting the Project Tango devices with its 'Matterport Scenes' app. I'm pretty certain that Matterport has an initiative to support other capture devices and this is the extent to which it makes sense right now. |
||
| Post 5 • IP flag post | ||
|
Helen private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @DanSmigrod Hi Dan, was there a company or product that really stood out to you at SPAR 3D something really exciting? Something to check out? Something we should be following? | ||
| Post 6 • IP flag post | ||
|
jfantin private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @DanSmigrod, you said at least two times "now that Matterport has traction", but I believe that this is a false hypothesis. I don´t see the traction yet. At least to the point where others would be willing to join the system. Could you expand on this? What is the traction you are seeing with Matterport? Is it being widely adopted as an industry standard? From my point of view the race is still open and we will have to wait until a clear winner shows up. Now, going back to the possibility of others joining or adopting the MP technology in some way, I remember that the Markting VP of Matterport once said to me that they were thinking in a "Matterport Inside" business model like Intel once did. But Matterport has gone in the opposite direction compared to Intel. While Intel had an open business model, Matterport has a closed one (more like Sony before losing all the consumer electronics market in favor of others that adopted open stardards, or like Apple, only that MP is not Apple and its CEO, whoever is, is not Steve Jobs). This was discussed many many times in this forum. We love Matterport quality and we love to work with this technology, but in my opinion Matterport is not, by far, the "must have" in the industry so far. Maybe someday, but as they are not alone and many others are running really fast to join the race, I wouldn´t bet my money on that horse. |
||
| Post 7 • IP flag post | ||
|
WGAN Forum Founder & WGAN-TV Podcast Host Atlanta, Georgia |
DanSmigrod private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @Baxter Seems like @ron0987 has a better handle on whether what I propose is even technically possible. @Tosolini Yes. Partnerships. @ron0987 Thank you for your insight on the tech. If the tech is not a hurdle, should Matterport pursue camera manufacturer alliances? @Helen Yes. Stay tuned for my SPAR 3D Expo & Conference video interviews; plus, videos from sessions. Lots of exciting solutions. Unfortunately, the hotel internet is too painful to upload. Patience please. @jfantin About Matterport traction, three things: ✓ The New York Times/Matterport alliance (media alliances are HUGE marketing engines. Newspapers will follow the NYTimes lead. ✓ Realtor.com / Matterport alliance (this is an A-list alliance that will cause some dominos to fall (in the right direction) ✓ While there API is not public, based on the pioneering work of @Metroplex360 it's obvious that great thinks are (hopefully) coming soon that will power exponential growth. Is this enough to define "traction"? Love the Sony versus VHS (closed versus open analogy. Seems like there are SO any examples that Matterport would learn ... Today, Matterport is more like vitamins than painkillers. (Vitamins are nice; painkillers solve a problem). In Thomas Friedman's latest book, he includes a graph showing technology escalating as a pace faster than people are willing to adopt. The message? It always takes longer for adoption that all of us early adopters believe should happen. It's taken 2.5 years for us to get inbound inquires along the lines of, "My competitor is using this solution. I need to too whether I am ready or not or want to ..." Sounds like some of the horses are out-of-the gate and you are still waiting to place your bet. (Not sure the track will allow that  Enjoy your weekend. Hopefully, I get to fly home Saturday (7 April 2017) after a two-night weather delay to fly home. Best, Dan |
||
| Post 8 • IP flag post | ||
|
|
jfantin private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @DanSmigrod, now I see what you mean. I wasn´t aware about the New York Times announcement (I haven´t received the email and I missed your post in the forum about it). This is great news indeed. When I doubted the validity of your statement I was thinking in traction as something defined by the demand's behavior and not from the sellers perspective. I mean, all these actions need market validation. Until property owners and their agents don´t embrace Matterport as the standard for on-line publishing of their virtual tours we will not be sure about who will win the race. There will be a standard´s war out there and whoever wins that war will get the whole market in the long term. Matterport winning small battles, like NYT and Realtor, are huge steps forward towards winning that war, but in the end it will be a matter of scale (number of people using a certain kind of equipment, a certain technology or a certain format). Some of the horses are out of the gate but this will be a very long race and a lot can happen until it ends. Have a safe flight back home! |
||
| Post 9 • IP flag post | ||
Pages:
1This topic is archived. Start new topic?