GPS World

Tag: digital reality

  • Faro acquires mobile scanning company GeoSLAM

    Faro acquires mobile scanning company GeoSLAM

    Image: Faro
    Image: Faro

    Faro Technologies Inc., a 4D digital reality company, has acquired GeoSLAM.

    Founded in 2012, GeoSLAM is a provider of mobile scanning solutions with proprietary high-productivity simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) software to create 3D models for use in digital twin applications.

    The addition of GeoSLAM is expected to significantly expand and accelerate Faro’s market growth in the mobile scanning space.

    “We are thrilled to add GeoSLAM’s handheld 3D scanning technology to our portfolio of cutting-edge data capture solutions,” said Michael Burger, Faro president and CEO. “Faro now offers the industry’s broadest set of 4D data-capture solutions, including 360° camera-based images, mobile scanning and stationary high-accuracy laser scanning, allowing customers to balance the need for accuracy, speed and detail depending on their requirements. These capture technologies provide the foundation for our 4D digital-reality-based SaaS (software-as-a-service) offering that will allow customers to access multiple 4D data sources for visualization and analysis through a single user experience. We welcome the GeoSLAM team to our Faro family.”

    “Joining with Faro represents the next step in the growth of GeoSLAM and the establishment of mobile mapping as a driver for growth in the way businesses map and understand their spaces,” said Andy Parr, GeoSLAM CEO. “Both companies share a vision of the importance of mobile scanning in the burgeoning digital reality capture market.”

    GeoSLAM reported £14.5 million in revenue with 18% EBITDA in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022. EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, is calculated as net income/loss before interest (income) expense, net, income tax expense (benefit), foreign exchange rate variance, and depreciation and amortization. The transaction closed on Sept. 1, funded with available cash reserves and equity consideration.

    Under terms of the agreement, GeoSLAM shareholders received a cash payment of £22.0 million and 495,562 shares of Faro stock subject to customary lock-up provisions. Faro expects the acquisition to be accretive to Non-GAAP EPS in 2023.

    Faro serves the markets of architecture, engineering and construction (AEC); facility operations and maintenance; 3D metrology; and public safety analytics.

  • Hexagon makes organizational changes to focus on digital reality

    Hexagon makes organizational changes to focus on digital reality

    Hexagon AB, a global leader in digital-reality solutions, has announced the following organizational changes to meet the fast-growing demand for real-time digital worlds.

    Juergen Dold, employed with Hexagon since 1995 and most recently serving in a strategic leadership role across Hexagon’s Geosystems, Geospatial and Safety & Infrastructure divisions, will assume the role of executive vice president to lead key enterprise-wide initiatives.

    Dold will oversee Hexagon’s focus on the content and platforms necessary to power and operate Smart Digital Reality applications and experiences that empower growth within Hexagon’s existing markets and offer rapid expansion into new market segments.

    “Bringing together data sets of all types and formats where you can build, store and share digitalized objects and environments is our sweet spot.”

    “Driving company strategy and growth in the metaverse ecosystem — the new digital reality that is emerging in both the professional and consumer markets — is key to Hexagon’s future,” said Hexagon President and CEO Ola Rollén. “Bringing together data sets of all types and formats where you can build, store and share digitalized objects and environments is our sweet spot.”

    Dold’s focus will include advancing and expanding the market penetration of Hexagon’s HxDR ecosystem, which includes the HxDR digital reality platform and related business models. The platform allows the convergence and visualization of almost any geospatial or reality-capture data or file format for improved collaboration and decision making.

    Artificial-intelligence-driven photogrammetry and point-cloud meshing of terrestrial and aerial data enables a geo “supermesh,” essentially creating the visual foundation for any smart digital reality. Such realities can be put to industry use, analyzing and interpreting infinite data inputs from the real or digital world to solve business problems.

    The data can also be leveraged in the metaverse, described by many as the “quasi successor state” of the internet that focuses on social interaction.

    Image: Thinkhubstudio/iStock/Getty Images Plus
    Image: Thinkhubstudio/iStock/Getty Images Plus

    “The metaverse isn’t a single place, but many digital-reality spaces and experiences that companies like Hexagon are working to make more accessible and immersive,” Rollén said. “Through virtual, mixed or augmented reality functionalities, we can provide a higher sense of presence and engagement.

    “Additionally, by providing a connected space built from crowdsourced or professionally captured data, we can improve collaboration and productivity, especially for remote users and teams.

    “The digital worlds and objects can be used in everything from filmmaking, gaming and tourism applications to architecture, real estate, land or utilities management, city services and more.”

    Dold will continue to report directly to Rollén as a member of Hexagon’s executive management team.

    Thomas Harring, president of Hexagon’s Geosystems division, and Steven Cost, president of Hexagon’s Safety, Infrastructure and Geospatial division, will join the Hexagon executive management team, reporting directly to Rollén.

    Harring will also assume responsibilities for Hexagon’s Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) business. This includes the software AEC business, which comprises the HxGN Smart Build portfolio previously managed under the PPM division and reported under IES, as well as Hexagon’s complementary sensor-software reality-capture and visualization solutions, such as the award-winning BLK line, already managed by the Geosystems division and reported under GES.

    Hexagon’s financial reporting structure consisting of IES and GES will remain the same.