Next Reality Features

ARCore 101: How to Create a Mobile AR Application in Unity, Part 2 (Setting Up the Framework)

With the software installation out of the way, it's time to build the framework within which to work when building an augmented reality app for Android devices.

News: Magic Leap Unveils Two New Demos Showing How Spatial Computing Works

The long and slow road toward the actual release of the Magic Leap One appears to be accelerating, with a couple of new demonstrations of how the system works revealed in this week's creator's portal updates along with the company's developer documentation.

News: Mixed Reality Headset 'Linq' Takes Direct Aim at HoloLens' Lack of Gaming

With the release of the HoloLens, Microsoft has put itself in both a great position while giving the competition a serious target to aim for. This is normally the case for anyone that is first to the market with a new idea, and now we've finally got a good competitor HoloLens coming. Stereolabs, a company known for its impressive 2K stereo camera, will be entering the mixed reality head-mounted display space with a Developers Kit as soon as early-2017.

News: 8th Wall Spins Up New 'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse' Augmented Reality Experience for Blu-Ray, DVD Release

Hollywood loves sequels so much that studios and their marketing teams are not too proud to release a sequel of an augmented reality promotion.

News: Magic Leap's Latest Job Posting Shows They're Getting Ready for Mass Production

Few companies have maintained such intense secrecy, in the face of such extreme hype, as Magic Leap, but the closer their mysterious Mixed Reality product comes to mass production, the harder it becomes to hide the details. Hopefully we'll find out way more details soon, as a Magic Leap job posting for a supply chain manager hint that they're readying for release in the next couple years.

Hands-On: Magic Leap's Screens App Is the Closest Thing to a Killer App for the Magic Leap One, For Now

By now, you already know that the Magic Leap One ships with an array of apps to immediately get you accustomed to operating in your new spatial computing reality. The first one we're going to focus on is Screens, an app we told you about previously, but only now have managed to try for ourselves.

News: Meta Rises from the Ashes Under New Ownership, Along with a New CEO

Almost half a year after we broke the story about the demise of Meta Company, there's good news for fans of the augmented reality startup — a rebirth is at hand.

News: Google Just Acquired Instant Translator Word Lens—All Language Packs Free for a Limited Time

According to a statement on its website, Quest Visual, the company behind the highly-regarded live translation app Word Lens, has been purchased by Google. This news has ripple effects across both the Android and iOS platforms, as it is likely Word Lens will be discontinued in the near future in favor of incorporating the technology into Google's own Translate app. For now, however, Quest Visual has made all Word Lens language packs available for free in celebration of their new deal with Goo...

News: Microsoft Opens Access to Sensor Data on the HoloLens with 'Research Mode' Update

The addition of a new research mode for Microsoft HoloLens will enable researchers and developers to tap into a wider range of data collected by the device's sensors.

News: Occipital's Bridge Headset—The iPhone's Answer to HoloLens—Is Available Now

A new contender has entered the mixed reality ring. San Fransisco-based Occipital has just released an "Explorer Edition" of Bridge—an iPhone-based mixed and virtual reality headset that uses their popular Structure Sensor. At a fraction of the cost of a HoloLens developers kit, this could be a place many curious people use to find their NextReality.

News: Snapchat Mutates X-Men Fans via Augmented Reality to Sell Tickets for 'Dark Phoenix' Movie

Augmented reality is often likened to granting superpowers to mere mortals, but what about mutant powers?

News: Now There's an Animoji for Rick from 'Rick & Morty'

Two characters from the popular sci-fi animated comedy Rick and Morty have already made their way into augmented reality courtesy of ARKit experiments. Now, it's possible to become one of them on the iPhone X.

News: Now You Can Drive Elon Musk's Tesla Cybertruck in AR from the Comfort of Your Home via iOS & Android

What do you do when your favorite new car is still two years away from hitting the road? Look to augmented reality, of course.

News: Mapbox Launches Location-Based AR Platform with Multi-User Support

Location services provider Mapbox is giving developers a means for building location-based AR apps and multi-user experiences with its new Mapbox AR toolkit.

News: Former Microsoft Engineers Achieve Best Hand-Tracking Capabilities We've Seen for AR

While augmented reality headset makers are faced with tackling numerous challenges before the category is truly ready for prime time, a start-up comprised of former Microsoft engineers may have nailed fast and precise tracking of hand gestures and full-body locomotion.

News: Thalmic's North Wearable Teases a Cooler Direction for AR Smartglasses

A major obstacle to the mainstream acceptance of smartglasses is the current inability able to smoosh processors, sensors, and batteries into a pair of frames that look cool. Wearables maker Thalmic is hinting that it may have figured it all out.

News: This HoloLens App Hopes to Offer Paramedics an Augmented Reality Assist During Emergencies

A new telemedicine application for the Microsoft HoloLens is promising paramedics and EMTs a new tool for diagnosis and treatment of patients in the field.

News: Microsoft Is About to Revolutionize How We Watch Sports at Home

Obviously this is just a teaser, and who knows how soon we'll see something like this in real life, but just go ahead and watch the video first before you continue reading.

News: HoloLens Can Now Wirelessly Tap Rendering Power of Any Desktop PC via UWP Apps Built in Unity

Looking to inject a little more processing juice into your HoloLens? Unity can fix you up with the Standalone Universal Windows Platform Holographic Emulation.

News: HoloStudy Teaches Science in 3D Using the HoloLens

Humans learn best by doing or through an experience, and so the holographic environments provided in virtual and mixed reality are ripe with educational opportunities. HoloStudy took this to heart and created an educational science app that teaches you with animated models you can explore in your own space.

News: New Consumer AR Smartglasses Contender Emerges with Action Air from China's Shadow Technologies

We last saw China-based augmented and virtual reality headset maker Shadow Technologies at last year's Augmented World Expo, where they had the Action One, one of the wildest augmented reality headsets we've seen, on display.

News: HoloFlight Turns Flight Data into Cool Mixed Reality Visualizations

Data visualization has many applications in virtual and mixed reality, since a third dimension literally adds important depth to the represented information. A new app called HoloFlight is a good example of this, combining flight-tracking data and the Microsoft HoloLens to surround you with a look at every plane in the sky.

News: Microsoft HoloLens Makes Virtual Teleportation a Reality

Logan's Run is one of my favorite movies of all time. The dialog is cheesy, the set design and special effects are wonky, and the main villain looks like he was conceived and built by an eighth grader in shop class—oh, and his name is Box.

Dev Report: 'Book of the Dead' Demo Shows New Unity 2018.1 Features Are a Literal Game Changer

In its goal to push the visual quality of real-time rendering to a new level, Unity is starting the new year off right by releasing a sneak peek at its upcoming interactive rendering improvements via a short, three-minute first-person interactive demo called "Book of the Dead."

News: ThirdEye Releases Smartglasses with Integrated AR Software for Enterprises

Smartglass maker ThirdEye Gen, Inc. has introduced an augmented reality solution for enterprises that includes their X1 Smartglass and a suite of software applications that enable completely hands-free computing.

Hands-on: DreamGlass Looks Like a Cheaper, More Mobile Meta 2, But This Is What We Really Think After Trying It

Earlier this week, we told you about the new DreamGlass augmented reality headset from Dreamworld, a company started by a former Meta executive. The device looks great, and the features sound good, but is it worth your hard-earned cash? I recently took it for a brief spin to find out.

News: User-Created Facebook & Instagram Face Filters Lead to Ban on 'Plastic Surgery' Effects

Facebook recently hit a snag in its quest to take augmented reality face effects to its millions of users.

Apple AR: Take a Walk on the Moon with New Space Door Demo

The latest portal demo made with Apple's ARKit is one small step for man, one giant leap for augmented reality. That's right, the latest demo allows you to venture through a door onto a moon from wherever you are.

HoloLens Dev 101: Building a Dynamic User Interface, Part 4 (Creating Objects from Code)

After previously learning how to make the material of an object change with the focus of an object, we will build on that knowledge by adding new objects through code. We will accomplish this by creating our bounding box, which in the end is not actually a box, as you will see.

News: Now Anyone Can Order Vuzix M300 Smart Glasses

Vuzix Corporation has lifted the preorder status on its M300 Smart Glasses, making the augmented reality device available for purchase by resellers, registered developers, enterprises, and consumers.

News: Hasbro Makes Marvel Movie Magic Real with Iron Man AR Helmet

Soon, kids young and old aspiring to imitate Iron Man will only need to learn how to duplicate Tony Stark's snarky wit, because Hasbro will now supply the augmented reality helmet.

News: MAC Cosmetics Stores Get AR Makeover with Virtual Try-on Mirrors

While AR apps by Modiface and Perfect Corp. have made it easier for people to shop for makeup without setting foot in a store, MAC Cosmetics wants to give its brick-and-mortar customers the same experience.

News: Smart Home Proof of Concept Uses a Raspberry Pi to Control Air Conditioner with HoloLens

Empea Berlin, a Germany-based company specializing in augmented, mixed, and virtual reality software, released a Facebook video a few months back showing off their experiments in smart home technology. Using a Raspberry Pi and a HoloLens unit, they were able to make a virtual remote control for an air conditioning unit. The remote is complete with various modes, temperature controls, timers, and other features. There have been no updates on this project since they first showed it off, but hop...

News: Walmart & Target Unwrap New Augmented Reality Features to Bring in Holiday Shoppers

This year's holiday shopping season is shaping up to be fertile ground for augmented reality to show its worth, as both Walmart and Target have crafted immersive experiences designed to engage shoppers in the coming weeks.

HowTo: Make Augmented Reality Cookies

Designer Mike Clare (of my own alma mater, RISD) has extended the augmented reality mania (1, 2, 3) to baked goods. Thanks to the crowd and Josh Delcore at AR World for the find. Here's how it works, via Design Boom:

News: Apple's Education-Focused iPad Event Pushes Augmented Reality Further into the Classroom

At Apple's education event in Chicago on Tuesday, augmented reality stood at the head of the class among the tech giant's new offerings for the classroom.

News: Realfiction's New Mixed Reality Display Projects Large Scale Holograms Without a Headset

Mixed reality display manufacturer Realfiction has developed a 64-inch display capable of delivering 3D holograms without a headset.

News: Apple iPhone X App Lets You Wear Your Friend's Face Like a Mask & Put Words in Their Mouth

On Wednesday, Apple released a new batch of Animoji characters that gives iPhone X users more virtual masks to play around with, but what many have been waiting for is an app that lets you put on a virtual mask of another person, not an animated emoji. Well, that day has finally arrived.

News: Magic Leap's First Twitch Video Show Had Toys, Philosophy, but No New Peeks at the Headset

We watched the first piece of public-facing content Magic Leap has released so you don't have to, and, well, you didn't miss much.

News: HoloLens Will Be Your AR Piano Teacher in the Future

You've likely seen light-up musical keyboards that teach you how to play a song with visual cues, but few of those devices exist and have a limited number of songs you can actually learn. But Karl Baumann and his HoloLens Hackathon team figured out that in mixed reality, you can learn music with visual cues with any piano.