Fyusion

Fyusion Inc. is a San Francisco-based company that develops spatial (3D) imaging technology, best known for Fyuse, an app that captures and shares interactive 3D images. Users move a smartphone around a subject to record a "fyuse" that can then be viewed from multiple angles by tilting or swiping the device, or by dragging with a mouse on the web. The app supports panoramas, selfies and full 360-degree object captures, and combines photographic and video capture so that a moment is recorded in space rather than on a linear timeline. Captured content can be edited (trimming, brightness, contrast, exposure, saturation, sharpness, vignette and filters), tagged, saved offline, published to an in-app social feed, shared to external networks such as Facebook and Twitter, or embedded on a website.

Alongside the consumer app, Fyusion operates a developer portal offering an intelligent 3D imaging viewer that can be embedded in Android (API 19 and above) and iOS applications or in web pages with a small amount of code, including a 360-degree car mode used for vehicle merchandising with specification and financing overlays. The viewer is described as streamable with multiple levels of detail, configurable across camera modes, resolutions and effects, platform-agnostic across mobile, web and AR/VR, and delivered from an AWS content delivery network. In September 2016 the company unveiled a platform for creating augmented-reality content from smartphone captures, converting images into 3D holographic representations viewable on AR headsets; the platform is based on the company's patented 3D spatio-temporal technology using sensor fusion, machine learning and computer vision, with part of it built into the Fyuse app. Fyusion also lists a Whisky16 app among its products.

Founding story

Fyusion's three founders — Radu B. Rusu, CTO Stefan Holzer and VP of Engineering Stephen Miller — previously worked together at Willow Garage, the personal-robotics research lab founded by early Google employee Scott Hassan. When Hassan moved the lab toward an incubator model and encouraged members to spin their technologies into consumer-facing businesses, Rusu first started an open-source 3D perception software effort called Open Perception. Fyusion was officially founded in 2013, and the founders subsequently patented their spatial photography technology.

Business model

Fyusion pairs a free consumer capture-and-share app with a developer/business-facing 3D imaging platform: viewer SDKs and web embeds that companies integrate into their own apps and websites, offered through a developer portal that also advertises integration and pricing options.

Traction

The Fyuse app shipped across iOS and Android with repeated major version releases between 2014 and 2016, an in-app social network with followers, likes, comments, re-shares ("Echoes") and engagement tracking, and press coverage in outlets including Digital Trends, CNET and Lifewire. The company reported 13 employees in 2014 and states its imaging platform powers businesses globally.

Latest developments

In January 2021 investor UTEC announced that Fyusion Inc. had been acquired by Cox Automotive Inc., a deal Cox Automotive described as deepening an existing collaboration. The fyusion.com domain now serves Cox Automotive's corporate website, which presents a portfolio of twelve automotive brands including Autotrader, Manheim, Dealertrack, Kelley Blue Book, vAuto, VinSolutions, Xtime, NextGear Capital, Dealer.com, Central Dispatch, Cox Fleet and Fullpath. Fyusion's developer portal for its 3D imaging viewer SDKs remains published.