{"slug": "this-ai-startup-is-using-self-driving-car-technology-to-bring-3d-video-to-live", "title": "This AI startup is using self-driving car technology to bring 3D video to live sports", "summary": "Peripheral Labs, a Toronto-based AI research company, has raised $8.7 million in seed funding from Inovia Capital, Deloitte Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and Entrepreneurs First to bring self-driving car technology to live sports, enabling viewers to watch replays in a 3D, video-game-like environment. The company, cofounded in 2024 by Kelvin Cui and Mustafa Khan, uses sensors and machine learning from autonomous vehicles to track 65 points on players, down to finger joints, and has already worked with the NBA's Toronto Raptors. Total seed funding now stands at $12.3 million.", "body_md": "If you’ve ever played a sports video game—such as an entry in the long-running *Madden NFL* series, or one of the annual releases focused on the NHL, NBA, or MLB—you’re likely familiar with the ability to follow the action from every conceivable angle. It’s something that can’t quite be matched in an arena setting, even in buildings packed with cameras.\n\nUntil now.\n\nPeripheral Labs, a Toronto-based [AI](https://www.fastcompany.com/section/artificial-intelligence) research company, is introducing what it calls “spatial intelligence” to live sports media, which could lead to an entirely new way to watch live sports.\n\nThis approach allows viewers to watch replays or highlights in a fully three-dimensional environment, similar to a video game.\n\n“We’re building models that understand the 3D world, and bringing machine learning and tech from autonomous vehicles to watching sports,” says Kelvin Cui, who cofounded Peripheral in 2024 with Mustafa Khan. “It’s a new, interactive, and immersive sports experience.”\n\nAs Cui explains, the technology utilizes technology and sensors used in driverless cars, which both Cui and Khan previously worked on.\n\nPeripheral applies the tech and the concepts behind it to 3D video, volumetric video, and video reconstruction, allowing for a photorealistic, navigable video environment.\n\nIn effect, viewers can watch highlights or replays of an event from almost any angle, or track a single portion of the video, such as a basketball or individual player. Other companies are working on similar technologies, including Arcturus and Wild Capture.\n\nCui says Peripheral is applying the technology to sports to start, as it allows for similar actions to be tracked, analyzed, and reconstructed in controlled environments.\n\n“We can track 65 points, all the way down to finger joints on individual players,” he says. “You’re watching what looks like a regular TV broadcast, but at any point you can change the camera angle at will, and you can fly to any angle through a video game controller or your phone.”\n\nCui also hopes that the video-game-like visuals and control options could help garner more interest in sports from Gen Z, which, as a generation, tends to watch live sports [at lower rates](https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2025/12/04/the-viewing-challenge-of-gen-z-and-the-opportunity-ahead/) than others.\n\nThe thesis is gaining attention because Peripheral is also announcing that it’s raised $8.7 million in new seed funding from Inovia Capital, Deloitte Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and Entrepreneurs First.\n\nIts total seed funding is now $12.3 million. Peripheral declined to share an estimated valuation for the company.\n\nThe sports world is taking notice, too.\n\nPeripheral has already worked with pro sports teams, such as the NBA’s Toronto Raptors, to [create highlights for social posts](https://x.com/Raptors/status/2079597857334550901). It will continue to focus on its work with basketball teams in the months ahead.\n\nThe company also plans to debut a consumer-facing platform and browser-based replay system sometime this year.\n\n“Our ambition is to work with different sports teams and leagues,” Cui says, noting the larger aims of integrating into live broadcasts. “The team is working on getting integrated into team social apps. . . . The ultimate ambition is to do it all in real time.”", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/this-ai-startup-is-using-self-driving-car-technology-to-bring-3d-video-to-live", "canonical_source": "https://www.fastcompany.com/91589495/this-ai-startup-is-using-self-driving-car-technology-to-bring-3d-video-to-live-sports", "published_at": "2026-08-17 15:01:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-17 15:43:13.548763+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "machine-learning", "computer-vision", "ai-startups", "ai-products"], "entities": ["Peripheral Labs", "Kelvin Cui", "Mustafa Khan", "Inovia Capital", "Deloitte Ventures", "Khosla Ventures", "Entrepreneurs First", "Toronto Raptors"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/this-ai-startup-is-using-self-driving-car-technology-to-bring-3d-video-to-live", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/this-ai-startup-is-using-self-driving-car-technology-to-bring-3d-video-to-live.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/this-ai-startup-is-using-self-driving-car-technology-to-bring-3d-video-to-live.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/this-ai-startup-is-using-self-driving-car-technology-to-bring-3d-video-to-live.jsonld"}}