Next Reality Features
News: The Crazy Process Behind the HoloLens Optics That Make Mixed Reality Possible
Tricking your eyes into seeing 3D images isn't all that hard in movies or even in virtual reality, but when you start projecting holograms into the physical world, you run into some difficult problems. Microsoft obviously figured them out with their HoloLens, but how? The process is pretty amazing.
News: The Enterprise Leap — Robots, Gremlins, & Games Won't Save Magic Leap, but Tapping the Inner Child of CEOs Just Might
Mystery is a tricky thing. Used correctly, it can give onlookers the impression that wondrous and perhaps valuable things are afoot. However, once the veil of suspension of disbelief is removed in any significant way, that same mystery can quickly turn into not just skepticism, but outright anger at what may have seemed like an attempt to dupe trusting onlookers.
News: This Smart App Makes HoloLens Room Scanning a Game All on Its Own
Complex games in mixed reality require a pretty detailed scan of the room, and getting this process right can be both time-consuming and annoying. Computer science students at the University of Washington decided to fix that by turning it into a game.
News: Here's How Shared AR Experiences will work via Google's Cloud Anchors
In the arms race between ARKit and ARCore, Google scored a big win with the announcement of its Cloud Anchors shared AR experiences platform at Google I/O on Tuesday.
News: U2 Kicks Off Latest Tour with Augmented Reality App Experience
One of the most successful rock bands still making music has just made augmented reality an integral part of its upcoming tour. Irish rock band U2 has announced a new mobile app experience that allows you to preview the group's live performance in your own home in AR.
News: Magic Leap Shows Off Spatial Computing Demo, FCC Docs Reveal New Controller Images
Magic Leap just did something it didn't do during its recent Twitch hardware demo: show us some new demo footage of what augmented reality really looks like through the Magic Leap One.
How To: Ingress, Google's Awesome New Mind-Hacking AR Game for Android Phones Now in Beta!
Google has just launched a new revolutionary augmented reality game for Android called Ingress. Their new mobile game centers around the fight for control of the minds of everyone here on Earth. It's a freaking worldwide fight—from your smartphone! While augmented reality in is nothing new in the smartphone gaming world, it has never seen the likes of this. With an almost Halo-like storytelling, Ingress seeks to bring out gamers all across the globe to perform physical activities by transform...
News: Jack Daniel's Joins the Augmented Reality Marketing Fray with Interactive Label & App
While Jack Daniel's is one of the most iconic brands in the liquor business, when it comes to augmented reality marketing, it's joining a long list of others telling a very familiar story in the growing marketing medium.
News: Vuzix Exec 'Sneaks' Demo of Futuristic Blade Smartglasses onto the Web
Up until now, experiencing augmented reality through Vuzix's next-generation Blade 3000 smartglasses would have required a trip to a tech conference where the company has an exhibition booth.
Apple AR: Starfox AR Uses iPhone X to Turn Your Face into a Level Boss
An AR/VR developer has managed to use the iPhone X to transport players into an emulation of the classic '90s video game Star Fox as the game's antagonist.
News: Did NASA Leak the HoloLens 2 in This Video?
Rumors are swirling today that NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) may have shown us the first public glimpse of the next-generation HoloLens. Are they real? Or just a prototype? We've been digging in all day to find the answers.
News: Magic Leap Producer Interview Gives Rare Insight into Company's Culture Before Disappearing from the Web
In what's becoming something of a regular occurrence, Magic Leap has yet another internal, unforced error on its hands. Thankfully, this time it's not about legal skirmishes or theft, but a rather unusual break from company protocol that has been quickly swept under the rug.
News: Moschino & H&M Harness the Power of Magic Leap One to Intro Augmented Reality to the Fashion World
Magic Leap has already entered the realm of entertainment and enterprise, but on now it has blazed its way into a new augmented reality frontier: fashion.
News: This AR App Could Make Your Next Dentist Visit Less Frightening
For some, going to the dentist can be a terrifying experience, but a new use of augmented reality could go a long way toward making the trip feel more like it's worth the orthodontic angst.
News: FaceCake Uses Snapchat-Like Camera Effects to Let You Try on Earrings Instead of Masks & Rainbows
Although it sounds like a foodie's take on Facebook, what Calabasas, California-based FaceCake actually offers is more about augmented reality fashion marketing rather than food selfies.
How To: Iterate Faster Inside Unity Using Holographic Emulation
In recent weeks, Unity has made a few great leaps forward for HoloLens development. These new features will increase iteration speed inside Unity and quickly increase the output of applications in the mixed reality space. Of these new features, let's take some time to talk about Holographic Emulation and why this will do so much for the development community.
News: Pokémon GO Unveils the Good, Bad & Weird Sides of Gaming in Augmented Reality
Pokémon GO made waves as the first augmented reality game to gain popular adoption. In fact, it was so popular that it only took a few days to uncover some the benefits and serious issues with combining physical and digital worlds.
Apple AR: Zynga's CSR 2 for iPhone Puts Your Dream Car Within Virtual Reach with AR Mode
Exotic sports cars are the province of the ridiculously wealthy but, thanks to augmented reality, you can now get closer than ever to a Bugatti Chiron.
News: Pokémon GO's Nearby Menu Is Lying to You—Here's Why All the Pokémon Have 3 Footprints
The easiest way to see which Pokémon are close to your current location in Pokémon GO is by checking the Nearby tracker in the bottom-right of your screen. At least this was the easiest way up until a few days ago. Initially, the Pokémon in the Nearby screen would be marked with between zero and three footprint icons—the more footprints, the further away a Pokémon is from your location. Pokémon with zero footprints should be visible to you.
News: Snapchat Lens Studio Adds New Segmentation Templates to Its Bag of Augmented Reality Tricks
On Thursday, Snap released three new templates for its Lens Studio that will give creators access to augmented reality capabilities previously only available to Snap's own design team.
How To: Android + Drive Assist = Augmented Reality Goodness for Your Car
While texting and driving may get you a ticket, there are still a ton of uses for your phone in your car, music and navigation just to name a couple. Every Android device comes with access to GPS and traffic updates, but none of those apps really have your back in real-time.
News: Theaters Turn to Mobile AR Gaming to Reclaim Pre-Show Movie Experience
Moviegoers who arrive at the theater early are no longer a captive audience for the ads, trivia, and miscellaneous content that precede the movie trailers than run before the feature presentation, as the ubiquity of the smartphone has become the preferred distraction for early birds at the theater.
News: Bernie Sanders Presidential Inauguration Freezing Moment Spawns Meme-Worthy Snapchat Lens
The world of politics can sometimes get a little toxic, but with the new administration, there's already a bit of whimsy creeping back into the online meme space.
News: Adobe's Project Aero Takes on Unity & Unreal for AR Content Creation Supremacy
Using the ARKit 2.0 announcement as its springboard, software maker Adobe is looking leap up to the level of Unity Technologies and Epic Games, the companies making the go-to tools for creating augmented reality experiences.
News: Apple iOS 11.3 Update Introduces Brand New Set of Animoji Characters
We knew it was coming, it was just a matter of when. Apple has just announced iOS 11.3, a new update for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, and it will include a brand-new set of Animoji for the iPhone X.
News: Microsoft Research Shows Off Mobile Holoportation
In recent years, wave after wave of technological advancement has led us down roads that are beginning to look more and more like science fiction stories. In their efforts to bring us from science fiction to science fact, Microsoft Research showed us a new communication medium called Holoportation earlier this year—and now they have found a way to make this highly complex holographic system far more mobile.
News: Magic Leap, Intel Bring Augmented Reality Cinema to SXSW
In the late nineteenth century, the advent of the motion picture wowed audiences with a new storytelling medium. Nearly a century and a half later, augmented reality is establishing a new frontier in film.
Hands-On: Hands-On with Lenovo's ThinkReality A6, a Disappointing Step Back from Augmented Reality's Cutting Edge
In the technology space, there are certain brands you grow to depend on. Whether it's due to a long, multi-decade track record of success, or new innovations that blow you away, some tech names accrue a rare kind of brand equity with users that's difficult to earn.
News: Augmented Reality in 2017 — The Winners, Losers & Best Bets on 2018
Around this time in 2016, the predictions for the next year had reached something of a consensus: 2017 would be the year of augmented reality. But a funny thing happened on the way to the future — nothing much, really. At least not for the first half of the year.
News: This App Turns the iPhone X into an AR Face-Painting Booth
Thanks to Face Maker, a new app for the iPhone X, children everywhere can now avoid the trauma of face painting.
Dev Report: Microsoft's First HoloLens Update in Over a Year Now Available in Preview, Hints at Big Plans for 2018
After more than a year and a half of silence, the rumors have morphed into reality: Microsoft has finally released an update for the HoloLens. And with that update comes a collection of new features that hint at big plans for the HoloLens this year.
News: Taqtile's HoloMaps Gives HoloLens Users Ability to View, Scale & Draw on 3D Maps
HoloMaps, an application by Seattle-based Taqtile, is available for free on the Windows Store. Taqtile, whose Vice President of Product Management was Microsoft's former Director of Business Development, is one of the few partners currently in the Microsoft HoloLens Agency Readiness Program. This interactive 3D map they have created, powered by Bing, offers more than just a top-down view of the world on the HoloLens.
News: Magic Leap One Makes a Surprise Appearance During World Cup TV Show
Magic Leap shows up in the weirdest places. Last week, right at the start of World Cup fever, for some reason, the Magic Leap One appeared on a Brazilian television show.
Apple AR: Become Pac-Man with Immersive Augmented Reality Game
There have been many classic games that have been rebooted thanks to Apple's ARKit, including Tetris, but none have been quite so immersive as this one. YouTube user KobiSnir has created an augmented reality Pac-Man game where you are Pac-Man, dubbed "ARMan."
News: Vertebrae Standing Up AR Ad Platform for ARKit Arrival
When iOS releases in the next few weeks, consumers on both iOS and Android operating systems can expect to see more AR ads in the mobile web browsers thanks to Vertebrae, an advertising platform for immersive media.
Hands-On: Hands-On with Magic Leap's Undersea, an AR Experience That Transports You to Another World
The latest immersive production from Magic Leap Studios finally got its debut on Monday at Siggraph, during which the company also released the app to the general public, so we took it for a spin.
How To: Perform the Air Tap Gesture Correctly on the HoloLens
Microsoft's HoloLens has two gestures: bloom and air tap. While the two might not seem like much to learn, some people struggle with the air tap because the headset can be a bit particular. The easiest way to learn the proper form is to look through someone else's eyes while they do it, so we've captured that for you.
HoloLens Dev 101: Building a Dynamic User Interface, Part 10 (Scaling Objects)
An incorrectly scaled object in your HoloLens app can make or break your project, so it's important to get scaling in Unity down, such as working with uniform and non-uniform factors, before moving onto to other aspects of your app.
News: Drake Drops Shoppable AR Lens on Snapchat to Push Fans to New Album on Apple Music
Hip-hop artist Drake once rapped that "goin' online...ain't part of (his) day," but that's not stopping him from promoting his new double album, Scorpion, via augmented reality on Snapchat.
Opinion: Apple's New Credit Card Is an Essential Piece of Its Impending AR Smartglasses Rollout. Here's Why
On Monday, Apple unveiled its Apple Card, the company's boldest move yet toward becoming a truly mainstream mobile payments company. And the product has vast implications for our augmented reality future, some of which may not be immediately obvious to many.