Jabil sees growth in augmented reality

ST. PETERSBURG — Jabil Circuit Inc. purchased Burlington, Mass.-based Kasalis Inc., which supplies advanced manufacturing systems to align, build and test small camera-based technology devices.

Terms of the purchase were not disclosed.

Jabil (symbol: JBL; recent price: $19.74) plans to double the company's engineering staff from its current 27 people.

“They have some really advanced optical offerings,” says Jabil Circuit Senior Director of Communications Michelle Smith in an interview with the Business Observer. “Virtually everything has a camera in it. This will expand our abilities around gesture recognition, augmented reality and miniaturized cameras.”

Kasalis was founded in 2011. Its main product, the Pixid camera assembly systems, is used for a number of camera-based applications, including automotive backup, smartphone and sports/action cameras.