Virtual reality and augmented reality distributor and developer Jaunt Inc. announced today the acquisition of Personify, including the company’s “Teleporter” lifelike 3-D real-time streaming technology and engineering team.

The move by Jaunt is part of the AR/VR startup’s push on research and development for cutting-edge communication technology that will allow people to recreate themselves visually anywhere in the world in an immersive fashion.

Jaunt previously announced a breakthrough in its own 3-D volumetric capture last month with a demonstration of its own 360-degree volumetric capture and streaming product. With its own proprietary capture software and technology, people can stand within a space surrounded by cameras and have their images translated into an AR or VR asset that mimics their expressions, gestures and appearance in real time, viewable from any angle.

Jaunt founder and Chief Technology Officer Arthur van Hoff said adding Teleporter and its engineering team will allow Jaunt ”to increase the speed and scope of our research and development as we move further into the extended reality arena,” and that it would be used to expand “the Jaunt XR Platform at the core of our business.”

Jaunt XR is the company’s cross-platform content distribution solution that the company licenses to deliver AR and VR content to any device. This platform would be the infrastructure over which real-time 3-D avatars would be streamed.

Seven of Personify’s engineers will join Jaunt’s research and development team and drive the company’s efforts in developing the technology, equipment and software tools with an emphasis on supporting mobile content delivery channels.

In another part of the acquisition, Jaunt is taking over Personify’s Chicago office. It will be led by Personify Chief Technology Officer Simon Venshtain, who will become Jaunt’s director of research, reporting to van Hoff.

Jaunt will also take ownership of four pending patents developed around Personify’s Teleporter technology and will use those patents and the product to bolster the company’s foray into 3-D real-time volumetric streaming.

Both AR and VR provide a way for people to separate themselves from the space they are currently occupying. With VR, a headset can change a person’s entire experience and using Teleporter, someone sitting in front of a desk in a small room can appear to be sitting in a space station or a high-rise office building.

With volumetric capture technology, it’s possible to meet science fiction-level recreation of a person in a totally different environment. Or, in the case of AR, the person’s volumetric avatar could appear to be standing in the room with a development team in order to make a demonstration or “face-to-face” conversation more approachable.

Image: Jaunt