Next Reality Features
News: Snapchat Gives Movie Fans Augmented Reality Superpowers with Voice-Activated 'Shazam!' Lens
When the titular hero of your superhero movie activates his powers with a catchphrase, it would be pretty neat if your augmented reality promotion for that film could react to the user's voice.
HoloLens Dev 102: How to Create an ImageTarget with Vuforia & Set Up the Camera System
Now that we've set up Vuforia in Unity, we can work on the more exciting aspects of making physical objects come to life on the HoloLens. In this guide, we will choose an image (something that you physically have in your home), build our ImageTarget database, and then set up our Unity camera to be able to recognize the chosen image so that it can overlay the 3D holographic effect on top of it.
News: Augmented Reality Tattoo—Holographic Skin Art
Another innovative use of augmented reality - we've seen transparent walls, t-shirts that play Rock, Paper, Scissors, an iPhone operated video game drone; and now, a tattoo that comes to life. Just tattoo a simple "barcode", point a webcam at it, and a flying animated dragon will appear, hovering.
HoloLens Dev 102: How to Make Physical Objects Come to Life on HoloLens with Vuforia
It seems to me you can't swing a dead cat near an augmented reality developer without hearing the word Vuforia escape their lips. PTC's software solution has become the go-to for most developers in the mobile AR space, and since they recently added full support for the HoloLens in Unity, I figured it was about time we learn to make something with it.
News: How Skype Video Chatting Works on the HoloLens
When you wear a holographic computer on your face, you gain some things and lose others. That's certainly the case when using Skype in Microsoft's HoloLens. Some video chats will work better because your caller can see what you see, rather than your face—but others just feel weird.
News: Shima Smartglasses Make Augmented Reality Fashionable
The world of augmented reality has seen a myriad of different products, from sensor-laden smartphones to robust holographic headsets, but Google Glass's failures nearly killed the middle ground.
News: Interactive 360-Degree Videos Are Now Live on YouTube
There's a reason that YouTube continues to be the most popular video sharing site on the planet—ever since its purchase by Google, they've always made sure to load YouTube up with extra features to keep it ahead of the pack.
News: HoloHear Is Like Google Translate for Deaf People
Deaf people primarily communicate through sign language, so understanding spoken languages can prove challenging. To bridge that gap in communication, the HoloHear team built a mixed reality app at a Microsoft HoloLens Hackathon in San Fransisco that translates the spoken word into sign language.
News: New 'Jurassic World Alive' AR Game Takes Everything Great About Pokémon Go & Adds Dinosaurs
The premise of Jurassic World revolves around splicing genes to create new dinosaurs, so it is fitting that the location-based AR game is a clone of Pokémon GO merged with the DNA of the Jurassic Park franchise.
News: Battlefield AR Game 'Recoil' Takes Tag to a Whole New Level
The new battlefield AR game announced by Skyrocket Toys today is similar to the childhood game "Tag", except the stakes are much, much higher.
News: 'Diminished Reality' App Does Augmented Reality in Reverse
Coming soon to an Android device near you: Diminished Reality! What's Diminished Reality? A lot like Augmented Reality, really, but with one big difference: Where AR giveth, insinuating virtual elements into a live representation of the real world, Diminished Reality taketh away, hiding actually-existing objects within a live feed.
How To: The Quick & Dirty Guide to the Augmented Reality Terms You Need to Know
Every industry has its own jargon, acronyms, initializations, and terminology that serve as shorthand to make communication more efficient among veteran members of that particular space. But while handy for insiders, those same terms can often create a learning curve for novices entering a particular field. The same holds true for the augmented reality (also known as "AR") business.
Apple AR: Star Wars Holograms Are Now a Real Thing on iPhone X via Clips App
Augmented reality is making many of our childhood dreams from Star Wars come true. A week after Lenovo gave us the ability to actually play Holochess, Apple has now made it possible to take live video of ourselves and layer on a (non-3D) hologram-like effect, closely resembling the famous Star Wars hologram scene featuring Princess Leia decades ago.
News: App from Japan Uses Apple's iPhone X to Transform Your Face & Voice into the Cutest Anime Character
Apple's iPhone X now has the power to turn anyone into a Japanese anime character, thanks to a new app that harnesses the device's TrueDepth camera.
News: Kinect Hack Reveals 'X-Ray' Vision
ProjectKinectMagicMirror combines augmented reality and CT-scan imagery to create a virtual "X-ray machine." Another amazing Microsoft Kinect hack to add to the vault. The ingenuity is infectious... Get inspired. Make-your-own.
News: Royal Australian Air Force Using HoloLens to Experiment with Augmented Reality
The limitless applications of 3D data visualization will enable a more efficient approach to many of life's problems. Each day, developers exploring this technology are finding new ways to solve these problems in mixed reality; 3D modeling, easier house management, spinal surgery, and forest fire management are just a few recent examples of ways 3D data visualization can benefit us all.
News: Microsoft Shows Off Rare Images of Early HoloLens Prototypes
All those early prototype images Magic Leap is so fond of showing off are great, but they rank a far second when compared to a new set of images just revealed by Microsoft in relation to the HoloLens.
How To: Share Photos & Videos with the Microsoft HoloLens
Microsoft's HoloLens comes with helpful features for capturing video and photos, but sharing whatever you record isn't as straightforward as you might expect. So here are the many ways to get your media off the device to share with the world.
News: Welcome Baby Yoda into Your Personal Space with Google Search AR
Google, you have something that I want. You may think you have some idea of what you are in possession of, but you do not. In a few moments, it will be mine...and it can be yours, too, dear readers.
News: If You're Curious About Creating Software for Augmented & Mixed Reality, Start Here
If not the future of computing in general, augmented, virtual, and mixed reality certainly will change the world of gaming. If you want to try your hand at shaping this evolved medium, the Unite Europe conference posted a talk that explains the first things you need to learn to develop holographic games.
News: This Guy Hacked Together DIY Haptic Gloves to 'Feel' VR—Here's How
Virtual and mixed reality experiences feel immersive because they take over your senses in various ways, but they still lack tactile feedback. Haptic gloves can change that, and you can make a pair yourself.
News: Magic Leap Finally Delivered a Live, Public Demonstration of the Magic Leap One, Here's What Happened
On Wednesday, June 6, the people at Magic Leap finally (FINALLY) decided to give the public a dedicated, slow, feature-by-feature walkthrough of the Magic Leap One: Creator Edition. How was it? About as good as it gets without actually getting to see what images look like through the device when wearing it.
News: 10 New AR Features in iOS 12 for iPhone & iPad
Apple's iOS 12 has finally landed. The big update appeared for everyone on Monday, Sept. 17, and hiding within are some pretty amazing augmented reality upgrades for iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches. We've been playing with them ever since the iOS 12 beta launched in June, and here are the things we learned that you'll want to know about.
News: Samsung Elevates Galaxy Note 10+ with Depth Camera for 3D Scanning & Augmented Reality Apps
The mobile augmented reality war for dominance between Apple and its Asia-based rivals is in full effect.
News: The 5 Most Innovative Augmented Reality Products of 2018
In 2018, augmented reality went from the vague promise of interesting things in the near future to tangible developments in software and hardware, proving that immersive computing is indeed the future.
News: VAR Football Gives Coaches Another Tool to Train Sports Teams With—The HoloLens
The HoloLens is a natural medium for 3D data visualization, which offers a far more ideal approach over 2D screens to managing multiple resources simultaneously and grasping the bigger picture. We've already seen how management is using holograms to oversee cities, firefighters, and the military, and now training for sports teams is being addressed with VAR Football.
News: Magic Leap Loses CFO Scott Henry & Effects Wizard John Gaeta Following News of Funding Woes
This week's news that Magic Leap's patents had entered collateral limbo, now in the hands of JPMorgan Chase, threw a dark cloud over the company.
News: Microsoft Japan Helps Godzilla Invade Real World Tokyo via HoloLens
The company behind Japan's beloved Gozilla, Japan's Toho Studios, has for years tried to give fans the sense of what a giant, nuclear-powered lizard invading Tokyo might feel like. Until now, those attempts have been limited to the movie theater, but now, with the help of the Microsoft HoloLens, Godzilla is finally getting its chance to invade the actual city, with terrified fans looking on from a safe distance.
News: The 25 Biggest AR Investments in 2019
It's safe to say that we can call the annual ranking of AR investments a holiday tradition at Next Reality.
News: Marvel's 'Avengers — Infinity War' Gets a Full Range of New AR Treats on Facebook
Like Marvel's Avengers, Facebook's Camera AR platform now has a number of new AR superpowers at its disposal, so it is fitting that Earth's Mightiest Heroes have the distinction of displaying them.
News: Magic Leap CEO Tweetstorm Reveals the Company's Vision for the Future of AR Computing
When you run an augmented reality company worth billions of dollars, backed by some of the biggest names in tech, and you haven't even released a product yet, even late night tweetstorms rank as worthy of dissection. Such is the case with Rony Abovitz, CEO of Magic Leap, who decided to spend a little time on Twitter on Wednesday to outline his vision of the future of immersive computing.
News: Tim Cook Takes to HBO to Promote the Future of Augmented Reality, Addresses Apple AR Glasses Question
On Sunday, Apple CEO Tim Cook (the number one person on our NR30 list) made a rare television appearance to talk about and show off his current obsession: augmented reality.
News: First Images Captured by Microsoft's Project Kinect for Azure Surface Online
Images captured by Microsoft's next generation Kinect depth-sensing camera that will facilitate augmented reality experiences in the next version of the HoloLens and give computer vision to untold multitudes of connected devices in enterprise facilities, have made their way into the wild.
News: 3D Modeling Comes to Mixed Reality on the HoloLens with Verto Studio 3D
3D modeling is usually a very long and complicated process. Manipulating the thousands to millions of vertices, faces, and triangles to the correct shape you want is just the first part of the process, and can take a good while depending on the level of detail needed. From there, you need to texture the model by applying the UV coordinates and placing the textures in the correct places. And all of this isn't even including the process of creating normal maps.
News: Meitu's BeautyPlus Selfie-Perfecting App Just Got Some Fun AR Filters
The popular beauty app company Meitu is incorporating augmented reality (AR) video and image filters and effects in its selfie-editing app BeautyPlus for iOS and Android.
Hands-On: Here's How Augmented Reality in Google Search Works
Lions and tigers and bears are just a few of the animals that Google users can now bring into their physical environments.
News: Vuzix Confirms New, Smaller Smartglasses Model with Fashion-Friendly Design
The recent industry whispers in augmented reality are mostly about Apple and its rumored fashion-friendly smartglasses, but one company isn't waiting for the iPhone heavyweight to enter the fray.
News: The World of Horror Just Got Real with the Augmented Reality Game 'Night Terrors'
Augmented reality allows for all kinds of experiences to happen just about anywhere, and that creates some incredible potential for entertainment. While games like Pokémon GO take you out into the world, one crowd-funded game wants to keep you inside—to scare the crap out of you in your own home.
News: Warner Bros. Conjures 'The Nun' Snapchat AR Lens to Scare Up Ticket Sales
The latest sponsored augmented reality experience on Snapchat from a movie studio might be its scariest — and perhaps most popular — yet.
News: Microsoft Introduced Acer's New Windows Mixed Reality Development Edition Headset
This morning, in an early morning session at GDC 2017, Brandon Bray, a senior program manager lead at Microsoft, revealed a mixed reality headset made in collaboration with Acer—a different headset than the one we saw from Acer at CES 2017 earlier this year. Also at the event, the name for Microsoft's holographic system seems to have changed from Windows Holographic to Windows Mixed Reality.