Hexagon acquires Immersal

Hexagon has expanded its smart digital reality capabilities with the acquisition of Immersal

Hexagon AB has acquired spatial mapping and visual positioning solutions comapany Immersal Oy. The Finish-based company’s technology is used to produce augmented reality (AR) applications.

AR applications enhance real-world experiences by augmenting a user’s visual perception with the display of digital content in the physical world. The technology can save time, improve performance and reduce costs.

The Immersal SDK (software development kit) allows developers to merge and ‘anchor’ digital content to real-world objects – with precise accuracy to their actual location in the physical space – by enabling a user’s mobile device to locate and orient itself in the surrounding physical world using machine-readable maps.

The maps, which are used for visual positioning, are constructed from image data supported by various mapping devices (including mobile phones) and hosted in the Immersal Cloud Service.

“Hexagon has long been a leader in delivering smart digital realities that combine inputs from reality capture sensors with advanced visualisation software and tools to enable remote, location-based intelligence. This acquisition puts the power of these insights into the hands of those on-site, enhancing their field of view with superimposed digital information, meaning they can literally do more with what they see,” says Hexagon President and CEO Ola Rollén.

Immersal’s technology can map large spaces – both indoors and outdoors – and works both offline on-device and online using the Cloud Service. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, Immersal will operate as part of Hexagon’s Geosystems division.