Apple May Have Acquired Motion Capture Company IKinema [Update: Confirmed]

Thursday October 3, 2019 3:59 pm PDT by Juli Clover

Apple may have recently acquired UK-based motion capture company IKinema, based on evidence from company filings and information shared by a MacRumors reader.

IKinema offers animation technology that's used for games, virtual reality, and more. Earlier this year, for example, IKinema partnered with Ubisoft for IKinema's RunTime software for character creation. IKinema specialized in technology that allowed for real-time motion animation of virtual characters.

IKINEMA's technology is embraced by development teams the world over to bring their games to life through delivery of high fidelity results in natural character locomotion and greater player immersion within dynamic game worlds, including substantial cost reduction and accelerated production levels by a factor of five times or more to expedite the release of games to market.

Based on details from IKinema's mostly defunct website, the company considers itself a specialist in real-time procedural animation and whole body solving technology. IKinema has several videos on YouTube showing off its technology creating animated characters from real-life people, dogs, and more.

According to a document filed with the UK government, Apple lawyer Peter Denwood, who handles Apple's international affairs, was named the director of IKinema on September 12, 2019, with his address listed as One Apple Park Way.

The address of the company was also updated to 100 New Bridge Street in London on September 26, which is the address for Apple Europe Limited.

The IKinema website is no longer functional with the exception of a few technical documents, and the company's Twitter and Facebook accounts stopped being updated on August 19. MacRumors reader Peter, who is in the industry, told MacRumors that IKinema customers have been left in the dark "for weeks" and that the acquisition was confirmed in a private Facebook Motion Capture group this morning.

It's not clear what Apple will do with IKinema's technology, but Apple has delved into games with Apple Arcade, though the company does not develop its own game technology at this time.

Apple is also rumored to be working on various virtual and augmented reality projects, which could potentially benefit from IKinema's software, as could Animoji and Memoji, which animate based on facial expressions using the TrueDepth camera system.

Update October 4 7:55 a.m.: Apple has confirmed its acquisition of IKinema, giving Tim Bradshaw of Financial Times the company's usual boilerplate statement: "Apple buys smaller companies from time to time, and we generally don't discuss our purpose or plans."

Tag: Apple acquisition

Top Rated Comments

(View all)

keysofanxiety

16 weeks ago

One of these days, Apple will acquire IKEA, and rename it iKea. The prices of everything they sell will skyrocket, but on the plus size, the furniture and housewares will get thinner and thinner.

The Apple iTorp 3S+ sofa group will have a triple-lens camera system, and be only a foot wide. Will make it tough to sit on, and as it will be made mostly of glass, it will be fairly fragile, but GOD will it take fantastic selfies, even in low light! AND it will be able to connect wirelessly to the internet!

Only $4,278.95 with 6GB of CLSDDR4 RAM... (Chaise Lounge Sofa Double Data Rate 4th generation Random Access Memory,) and 32GB storage for the base model. Of course, what Apple won’t tell you is that furnitureOS takes 28GB of storage to work. Never mind why a SOFA needs RAM...

I could be wrong, but it would be really funny. The alternative is that IKEA gets a BUNCH of money from somewhere and buys Apple. The next year, they announce the new iPhøn, which you have to assemble yourself from 178 individual parts, and the instructions are of course, almost free of words, just pictographs showing someone with REALLY tiny hands putting things together, and the obligatory sketch of someone with GIANT hands, (by which I mean regular-sized hands,) on a frustrated person, unable to even pick up or hold the tiny bits, smiling while calling customer service for help, and customer service sending a tiny little pixie of a person in a blue-striped, yellow colored IKEA uniform, over to assist the customer.

For a fee, of course.

That was a lot of effort for very little reward.

Rating: 9 Votes

kanki1985

16 weeks ago

That would make an amazing addition to the animoji team!! Well done Apple!

Rating: 6 Votes

apparatchik

16 weeks ago

PowerBeats Pro are pretty slick. Other than those and the W1 chip, Apple hasn’t really done much with Beats. Oh and Apple Music / Beats Radio.

I just bought ones, they’re pretty good, Im a freelancer developer, they’re great for taking calls and for switching between iPhone/Mac, I can be making lunch or dinner, skip songs, call someone throw siri, without using my hands and with the phone charging upstairs. It’s not perfect and not exactly cheap but they’re great nonetheless.

Rating: 2 Votes

Khedron

16 weeks ago

Petmoji confirmed

Rating: 2 Votes

halluxsinister

16 weeks ago

('https://www.macrumors.com/2019/10/03/apple-acquisition-ikinema/')

Apple may have recently acquired UK-based motion capture company IKinema ('https://www.ikinema.com'), based on evidence from company filings and information shared by a MacRumors reader.

IKinema offers animation technology that's used for games, virtual reality, and more. Earlier this year, for example, IKinema partnered with ('https://www.gamasutra.com/view/pressreleases/346338/IKINEMA_powers_Ubisoft_to_deliver_immersive_and_believable_games_faster.php') Ubisoft for IKinema's RunTime software for character creation. IKinema specialized in technology that allowed for real-time motion animation of virtual characters.

Based on details ('https://www.ikinema.com/docs/index.html') from IKinema's mostly defunct website, the company considers itself a specialist in real-time procedural animation and whole body solving technology. IKinema has several videos on YouTube showing off its technology creating animated characters from real-life people, dogs, and more.

[MEDIA=youtube]849vDheMyXs[/MEDIA]

According to a document filed with the UK government, Apple lawyer Peter Denwood ('https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-denwood-9a71244/'), who handles Apple's international affairs, was named the director of IKinema on September 12, 2019, with his address listed as One Apple Park Way.

The address of the company was also updated to 100 New Bridge Street in London on September 26, which is the address for Apple Europe Limited.

The IKinema website is no longer functional with the exception of a few technical documents, and the company's Twitter and Facebook accounts stopped being updated on August 19. A MacRumors reader in the industry told MacRumors that IKinema customers have been left in the dark "for weeks" and that the acquisition was confirmed in a private Facebook Motion Capture group this morning.

It's not clear what Apple will do with IKinema's technology, but Apple has delved into games with Apple Arcade, though the company does not develop its own game technology at this time.

Apple is also rumored to be working on various virtual and augmented reality projects, which could potentially benefit from IKinema's software, as could Animoji and Memoji, which animate based on facial expressions using the TrueDepth camera system.

Article Link: Apple May Have Acquired Motion Capture Company IKinema ('https://www.macrumors.com/2019/10/03/apple-acquisition-ikinema/')