Weeks after Fitness AR used Mapbox technology to build digital 3D maps that help endurance athletes on Strava visualize trail routes, the augmented reality activity-tracking app has been acquired by Mapbox to build all sorts of sports, fitness and consumer apps for clients.
As part of the deal, Fitness AR co-founder Adam Debreczeni will help Mapbox build out a team of designers and developers focused on creating practical augmented and virtual reality applications in key verticals, such as sports, weather, travel and gaming.
Mapbox’s clients span a range of consumer-facing industries, with major brands such as Strava, Uber, Snapchat and The Weather Channel using its maps to provide location-based services to consumers. In October, it took a stab at professional sports when it created digital 3D maps of the extreme paddleboarding event Red Bull Heavy Water.
Mapbox is making some big moves into AR, and I’m excited to work with them on a few projects to push the tech even further. Soundboxing fans worry not! I’m still staying indie and will continue to develop the game (in fact, big updates coming soon.) https://t.co/xVstAwDwyR
— Eric Florenzano (@ericflo) December 1, 2017
As part of this expansion in AR, Mapbox says it is hiring talent from the automotive, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, embedded systems, and gaming industries.
“This is about building interactive experiences,” Mapbox CEO Eric Gundersen said in a statement. “AR is going to be bigger than the browser and bigger than mobile.”
In October, Fitness AR announced it was using Mapbox’s Unity Maps SDK, which enables developers to build location-based AR apps, and Apple’s new augmented reality developers kit, ARKit, to build trail maps for runners and cyclists on the Strava social network.
Fitness AR aimed to visualize routes by building a digital terrain map that would appear in a person’s physical environment (similar to the coffee table hololens experience of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Quicken Loans Arena renovations).
“Designing augmented reality experiences for applications is still a very nascent field, requiring new tools and new thinking,” Debreczeni said in a statement. “With the Unity Maps SDK, Mapbox is the leader in the exciting new space of AR and location.”