A remarkable startup is developing a groundbreaking AI system that promises to provide creators with unprecedented cinematic world generation capabilities. The company, named Odyssey, employs a unique approach: having staff carry specialized camera systems to capture scene data from around the globe on-site.
Founded by autonomous driving experts Oliver Cameron and Jeff Hawke, Odyssey recently completed a $18 million Series A funding round, led by EQT Ventures, with participation from GV and Air Street Capital. This brings the company's total funding to $27 million. The funds will primarily be used to expand its data collection operations in California.
The advanced photography system developed by Odyssey weighs about 25 pounds and is equipped with six cameras, two LiDAR sensors, and an inertial measurement unit. This system is similar to Google's Street View Trekker, capable of capturing 360-degree panoramic images at a resolution of 3.5K while recording depth information metadata with physical accuracy.
The core technology of the company lies in inputting the collected data into algorithms to capture the detailed features that make up the real world. This process is akin to Meta's Hyperscape project, which can digitally reconstruct real environments such as forests, caves, trails, beaches, glaciers, parks, and buildings. Odyssey has developed several generative AI models that can create visual detail layers including object geometry, lighting, and motion, and combine them into a single virtual "world" to create the desired scenes.
"Without training on a vast amount of rich multimodal real 3D data, generative models cannot create vibrant Hollywood-level worlds," the company stated on its blog. "We believe that an advanced generative world-building model will bring revolutionary changes to content creation in film, games, and more."
Although the current "world models" still have certain limitations, Odyssey plans to expand its data collection efforts to other states and countries in the future. Given privacy concerns (the Google Street View team has faced regulatory scrutiny for capturing images of public places that invade pedestrians' privacy), the company will need to implement appropriate privacy protection measures during its expansion.
The emergence of this technology could fundamentally change the way films and games are produced, providing creators with more efficient and cost-effective content production solutions. As AI technology continues to advance, we may soon see this revolutionary technology applied in more fields.