Report: Apple discretely acquired mixed-reality startup Spektral for $30M
(Digital Photography Review)

According to a report from Fortune, Apple discretely acquired Danish visual effects startup Spektral in December 2017. Spektral was once named CloudCutout and focused on a cloud-based solution to masking a subject from the background of an photograph. Now, Spektral specializes in masking technology that uses machine learning to separate a subject in an image from the background in real-time on mobile devices. `Combining deep neural networks and spectral graph theory with the computing power of modern GPUs, our engine can process images and video from the camera in real-time (60 fps) directly on the device,` says Spektral on its website. Neither Apple nor Spektral have confirmed the acquisition, but Fortune reports the deal was worth `more than $30 million.` With no comment, we can`t say for sure what Apple intends to do with Spektral`s intellectual property and personnel, but Spektral Co-Founder and Chief Technical Officer Toke Jansen now lists `Manager, Computational Imaging` as his title at Apple on his LinkedIn profile. Combined with Apple`s ongoing efforts to beef up its augmented reality efforts in its apps - both its own and third-party - it`s safe to assume we`ll see the fruits of the acquisition in the near future, if we haven`t already seen parts of it.