Segmentive secures Euro 2 million to launch new live video scene-swap technology

Berlin: Deep-tech computer vision startup, Segmentive, today announced closing its €2 million seed round in a bid to deliver whole-body video segmentation, in real-time and on mobile.

Founded in 2019, Segmentive allows users to intelligently remove themselves from live backgrounds to be transported into a scene of their choice, enabling a broad range of AR/VR use cases. Segmentive’s cutting-edge approach combines deep learning techniques with the industry’s most advanced online learning neural network algorithms to replicate and scale human understanding of scene identification. The startup is actually a spin-off from parent company, Cinector, with years of special effect experience in movies.

To date, removing the background from a video of a moving person on a mobile device in real-time has been impossible. The technology is designed to be used by social media platforms looking for unique features to transport users to different worlds by changing their backgrounds. Segmentive has applications with mobile phone manufacturers and tech giants looking to push the boundaries of computer vision to create new commercial applications.

Lutz Roellig, Segmentive CEO commented: “[This] funding will accelerate the delivery of our multi-layer segmentation technology mobile prototype and allow us to make key hires to support execution. VR and AR use cases have been held back by an inability to display crisp edges on mobile devices as humans move around in virtual environments –  Segmentive’s technology breaks through this barrier to deliver fine details in real-time video on modern mobile devices.”