Scape is 3D-mapping 100 cities to precisely anchor AR objects

Earlier this year, UK-based startup Scape Technologies previewed a potentially exciting new augmented reality technology for smartphones, promising to use a device's camera to automatically determine its location. Now the company's larger plan is coming into focus, and it's exciting -- using vast, accurate 3D maps to enable city-scale augmented reality applications. Scape's pitch is as simple as the enabling technology is complex. While some companies have mapped individual landmarks, buildings, or roads for narrow AR applications, Scape is now mapping entire cities. Already live in London and San Francisco, its 3D maps are underway for 100 cities, it told PCMag, thanks to data gathered by cameras with computer vision.