After successfully raising $1.8 billion in a new round of funding last week, Snapchat has proven itself a force to be reckoned with and it's showing no signs of slowing down. With fun filters, hidden features, and self-destructing photos/videos, Snapchat has officially put the fun back in social networking. You know, without the memes, political commentary, or family drama found on services like Facebook.
Snapchat struck it big with acquisition of the techies last year, allowing users to create 3D facial tracking masks, officially dubbed Lenses that users can't get enough of. On a serious note the cartoon dog Lens needs to die already. If you're wondering what comes next, Snapchat's latest purchase might provide a clue.
Snapchat has quietly acquired Obvious Engineering, a 3D photo application for iOS with some impressive technology behind it. According to Techcrunch, Snapchat was more interested in Seene's engineering team and the "computer vision technology" that powers it, 3D facial capture, 3D scene reconstruction, augmented reality, (not so much the app itself.)
It's not clear what Snapchat plans on doing with the Seene team - who has since been relocated to Los Angeles (Snapchat's HQ) - but their scope of their technology branches to virtual reality by being able to scan entire rooms a la Google's Project Tango. Using a VR headset, someone could then be fully immersed into these 3D worlds. Seene also has some pretty powerful augmented reality technology, giving it an obvious marketing opportunity for brands.
Whatever Snapchat is planning, we have a feeling that it is going to be just as big and fun as their 3D Lenses, one thing is for sure it is going to be a big hit for the techies out there who love to pull and take a selfie.
