Better capture made simple: The Matterport Axis™ origin story

Each year, Matterport invites its employees to participate in our own internal hackathons, encouraging Matterpeeps to dedicate time to think outside the box with a major emphasis on having fun. During these events, we encourage ideas or concepts that could add to or enhance Matterport’s product portfolio with our customers squarely in mind. With innovation at the foundation of our hackathons, the goal for our team is to step back and better understand the challenges our customers face — and exactly how we can help solve them. 

As we neared Matterport for Mobile’s one-year anniversary, our most recent hackathon had everyone thinking the same thing: How can we make a better experience for customers using smartphones to capture digital twins? 

At the end of the hackathon, we had a clear winner: Matterport Axis™. 

Taking mobile capture to the next level

When we announced Matterport for Mobile in the summer of 2020, we couldn’t wait to see people capture their own digital twins and share them with the world. With our customers capturing on the go, we wanted to find a way to make their experience hassle-free. Matterport Axis, our new motorized mount, accomplishes that by automating the mobile capture process.  

Before Matterport Axis, mobile users were required to hold their smartphones and captured spaces by hand. If you had large spaces to capture, the process could get tiring. With this challenge in mind and equipped with a solid product concept from the hackathon, we set a goal to radically simplify the mobile capture process. We knew that we had to create a portable, easy-to-use motorized mount and a simple mobile experience that would allow anyone to use the phone in their pocket to precisely scan spaces such as homes, stores, hotels, or offices in photorealistic 3D — all with the press of a button. 

Fueled by our motivation to simplify smartphone capture for our customers, we needed to quickly take the idea of Matterport Axis from a concept stage to a full production solution. In collaboration with an experienced manufacturing partner that specializes in hardware design, we were able to go from concept to production within 9 months. In parallel, our mobile team also developed a new scanning mode for both the iOS and Android Capture app to support Matterport Axis. 

The result is a simple and elegant solution that helps anyone with a smartphone in their pocket to easily create consistent, high-quality digital twins. 

Pushing the limits with Matterport Axis

Whether one person uses Matterport Axis or it is deployed in the hundreds across an organization, starting at $79, creating digital twins are not only possible, but affordable for anyone or any business.  

Consider a coffee or pizza chain with locations across the country that use digital twins to visualize merchandising, store layouts, or operational compliance. Equipped with a smartphone and Matterport Axis, now workers in those locations can digitize their stores in just minutes rather than tasking a single person to travel to every location. Once created, management can review digital twins of multiple store locations for purposes of merchandising, compliance, design or operations or request these stores to take new captures anytime. Digital twins then make it simpler to remotely manage day-to-day tasks for workers in these types of businesses.  

At Matterport, we pride ourselves on setting the gold standard for 3D capture technology with the Pro camera series. Our iOS- and Android-compatible Capture app expanded that offering, putting the power of digital twins in the hands of more people around the world. 

Matterport Axis went from a beloved hackathon project to a critical component to help anyone complete their smartphone capture experience. With the introduction of Matterport Axis, it’s never been easier to create your own 3D digital twins and now that it is available for purchase, we hope you give it a spin.

To download the Matterport Capture smartphone app, click here.  To learn more or purchase Matterport Axis, click here.