Topplus wants to turn your phone’s camera into a Kinect for VR/AR

Cameras, a crucial factor to assess how good a smartphone is, have improved dramatically over the past decade. Facial recognition, filter effects, QR code scanning for payment: Tons of features rely on camera capabilities to support proper operation. Driven by the success of Pokemon Go, the rising VR/AR technology is now shaping future innovations for smartphone cameras.

For Xu Yidan, founder and CEO of Topplus, upgrading the smartphone camera is a great way to tap into the burgeoning VR/AR industry. Smartphones, due to their ubiquity, are proving to be the best use case for most applications.

“Smartphones will continue to record the largest smart hardware shipment for the next five years. Compared with helmets and goggles, it has user penetration. More importantly, the ubiquity of mobile payment services on handsets has made it a more accessible means to monetize VR/AR content,” he says.

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