Next Reality Features

News: Airbnb Thinks an Augmented Reality Feature Will Make Your Next Stay Less Awkward

Just as the modern travel experience has improved thanks to the internet, Airbnb wants to make your stay in a stranger's home easier by way of augmented and virtual reality.

News: Google Joins Snapchat & Facebook by Adding Augmented Reality Video Effects to Duo App for Valentine's Day

Snapchat and Snap Camera aren't the only augmented reality apps available for couples to use on Valentine's Day.

News: Startup GWD's HiiDii Blink-Activated Wearable Offers Alternative Way to Control Your Devices

We have seen Kickstarter-launched wearables before, but this one is particularly unique and may even have you blinking a bit in wonder when you see how it functions.

News: A Really Cheap Augmented Reality Headset Is Coming Soon

Mira Reality unveiled the Mira Prism yesterday and people immediately got excited about it. The Mira Prism uses no electronics besides your iPhone and it works pretty simply. You have a semi-transparent screen in front of your face. Once you open the Mira app on your phone, you just slide it into the Prism and your screen will be reflected across your vision. The Prism seems to be fairly similar to the HoloLens and Google Glass.

News: What Snap's Voca.ai Acquisition Could Mean for Snapchat & Spectacles — Virtual Voice Assistants Meet Augmented Reality

What does it mean when a software company obsessively focused on innovating the way we use our mobile devices to see and communicate with the world adds virtual voice agents? Possibly e-commerce magic, with a powerful layer of augmented reality.

Apple AR: The Only Thing Holding The Machines Back From Greatness Is the iPhone Itself

Directive Games received the enviable honor of unveiling their ARKit game, The Machines, on stage as part of Apple's iPhone launch presentation.

News: Fantasmo Wants to Map the World & Its Buildings in 3D with Your Smartphone's Camera

Another AR cloud savior has emerged this week in Fantasmo, a startup that wants to turn anyone with a smartphone into a cartographer for spatial maps.

News: DreamWorld Seeks to Dismiss Meta Lawsuit

Facing claims of misappropriation of trade secrets and confidential information by Meta Company, DreamWorld, led by Meta's former employee, Zhangyi "Kevin" Zhong, has fired back with a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

News: Mozilla Launches WebXR Viewer iOS App to Let Developers Experiment with ARKit

While Apple launched ARKit to enable developers to build augmented into mobile apps, Mozilla, the company behind the Firefox browser, is taking advantage of the platform to advocate for browser-based AR experiences.

News: Amusement Park Pits Guests Against Each Other in Augmented Reality Warfare

Kings Dominion, an amusement park located in Doswell, Virginia, just announced a mobile augmented reality game for park visitors. Gameplay in The Battle for Kings Dominion — available on May 19 for iOS and Android devices — follows the playbook designed by Niantic through Ingress and Pokémon GO.

News: Augmented Reality to Cure Cockroach Phobias

Creepy crawlers. I'd say I'm not an extremely girly-girl. But (much to my embarrassment) bugs still have the capacity to make me shriek. Solution? A new study suggests that augmented reality could be used to cure cockroach phobia.

News: Ghostbusters World Might Be the Killer App for Google's ARCore Platform

As part of its ARCore release announcement, Google also revealed a forthcoming app that's sure to excite those who celebrate '80s pop culture.

News: Augmented Reality Documentary 'These Sleepless Nights' Explores the US Homelessness Epidemic

Augmented reality can be more than simply a way to enhance navigation, or superimpose virtual sunglasses onto your face. It can also be a platform for shining a light on important social issues.

News: Children Can Now Go on an AR Adventure at Heathrow Airport

Heathrow Airport's most recent arrival isn't a flight, but rather an interactive children's game featuring augmented reality technology.

News: Epic Games Launches $100 Million Fund to Support 3D Experiences Created Using Unreal Engine

While some widely praised immersive computing initiatives at Google are shutting down, over at Epic Games things are just ramping up, and it involves quite a bit of cash available to indie augmented reality developers and startups alike.

Opinion: Google Glass Patent Reveals Traditional Frames, but Design Isn't Only Challenge Facing AR Smartglasses

Just when you thought Google Glass was dead, it turns out there may be a second life for the often ridiculed device that won't relegate it to the staid confines of factories and repair jobs.

News: Lenovo's First Take on Head-Worn Augmented Reality Is Definitely Not for Consumers

For some time now, there has been quite a bit of speculation as to when the selection of augmented and mixed reality head-mounted displays would begin to trickle out to the public. Pricing, availability, and software selection are all issues that will have to be addressed before widespread adoption will start.

Apple AR: Assisting the Technically-Challenged Is Easier With Vuforia's New App

If you're a regular reader of this site, there's a good chance friends and family turn to you as their volunteer technical support staff.

Market Reality: Augmented Reality Continues to Disrupt Mobile via Facebook, Starbucks, Swarovski & Others

Augmented reality was recently named the "Mobile Disruptor of the Year" for 2017 by Mobile Marketer, but the technology is showing no signs of slowing down as we head into 2018. In fact, the technology appears to be gaining momentum.

Dev Report: Machine Learning Agents Come to Unity

As we have seen previously with the likes of SethBling's Mar I/O videos and other examples, video games seem to be a great source for training AI neural networks. Augmented reality and machine learning are part of a collection of technologies that seem to be growing toward a point of maturity, and that will likely cause them to be intertwined for the foreseeable future. As developers, machine learning will definitely change the way we create software in the coming future. Instead of going lin...

Apple AR: Authentic Robot Commanders Make for a Scary Yet Satisfying ARKit Experience

Augmented reality has an incredible way of integrating things into our world that we can typically only see in movies like ghosts in a haunted house or Sharknados. However, a new experiment made with Apple's ARKit has changed the game in realistic augmented reality characters.

Market Reality: Businesses Invest in the Expansion of AR Services & Content Creation

As augmented reality gains popularity, the demand for delivering related services and generating content increases. This is demonstrated by a pair of investments from the past week, one in the expansion of a technology lab and another in the form of seed funding for a content studio.

Market Reality: Level Ex Closes $11 Million in Financing, While Gaze Coin Seeks $12 Million through ICO

According to Digi-Capital, investors poured $1.8 billion into augmented and virtual reality companies over the last 12 months, including $300 million in the third quarter. These investments are not made without a means to monetize products and services.

Market Reality: Snoop & Mark Ronson Hit AR, DreamWorld & Mad Gaze Launch Wearables, & Google Tests Mobile Hand Tracking

Before smartglasses makers can dream of taking smartglasses to mainstream consumers, they must first determine the right mix of form, function, and price that will drive customers to buy into what they're hoping to sell.

News: ARKit App WiARframe Wants to Be the Destination for AR Prototyping & Discovery

A new app for iPhones and iPads gives developers a sandbox for testing their AR experiences and sharing them with the world.

News: The Hololens Could Change How Buildings Are Designed & Built

With developers already figuring out how to use the HoloLens for home improvement tasks, it's no surprise that the device has greater applications in construction. Tech blog Digital Trends points out that holograms are a natural evolution of the blueprint, and several other aspects of construction work.

News: How You Can Put Street Art Legend KAWS & Even That Mysterious Alien Utah Monolith in Your Own Home via AR

Sure, you could leave a random monolith in Utah and get some notoriety for your street art. Or, you can let others put your art anywhere they'd like with augmented reality so they can appreciate it where they are.

News: New York Times Delivers Augmented Reality Content to Magic Leap One Starting with Guatemala Volcano Feature

When Magic Leap One owners unbox their new devices over the next few months (or, if they are lucky, days), they will have some familiar augmented reality news content to consume.

News: Apple Hides Augmented Reality Surprise in Invite for Next Big Event

Apple's augmented reality teases just keep on coming from the halls of its Cupertino labs. The latest comes in the form of an invitation to Apple's next public-facing event.

News: Magic Leap & Weta Workshop Launch Boosters Game from Dr. Grordbort's Invaders Universe

Magic Leap took years to launch, but when it did, the company managed to quickly become the leading rival to Microsoft's HoloLens (at least when it comes to experimental immersive experiences).

News: Princess Leia Makes an Appearance on the HoloLens

While Magic Leap and ILMxLABs blew the internet's collective mind with a mixed reality Star Wars game demo last week, it'll likely be awhile before we see either the game or the hardware that'll run it. In the meantime, you can get one of the most famous Star Wars holographic messages on the HoloLens: Princess Leia's message to Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Market Reality: Samsung Prototype, Mastercard App, Plus Vuzix, 0Glasses, & Pacific Future AR Wearables Shown Off at CES

In years past, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) mostly dabbled in the future as far as the long-term vision for augmented reality was concerned. This year, however, objects in the future are much closer than they appear.

News: Taylor Swift Invites You to Dance to Her Music in Augmented Reality

Facebook's camera platform is the augmented reality vehicle of choice to promote the latest musical effort from Taylor Swift. T-Swift's new album, Reputation, dropped today. To get her fans psyched, an AR effect electrifies the user with virtual lightning, while a snippet from one of her songs plays in the background. Previously, Lady Gaga opted for a Facebook filter to promote her Netflix documentary, Gaga: Five Foot Two, which premiered Sept. 22. (Personally, I'm more excited about the new ...

News: U2 Takes Fans Behind the Scenes of Its New Augmented Reality Tour

Last month, we told you about U2's new augmented reality-powered music tour. But if you don't have the means to travel to the show, the group recently revealed an inside look at what it will be like and what inspired the band to dive into immersive technology.

Market Reality: Apple Cultivates Chinese AR Devs, Minecraft Earth Beta Arrives, & a Brief History of AR in Marvel Movies

This week, while Apple was the subject of thinly sourced reports that it had canceled development of its oft-rumored smartglasses, the Cupertino was actually laying the foundation for its AR hardware future with a new initiative focused on mentoring Chinese developers in mobile AR development.

News: Torch App Teams with 6D.Ai to Add Occlusion & Persistence to AR Creations

Over the past year, two trends have emerged among augmented reality development software: make it easier to create AR content, and give AR apps better environmental understanding with just a smartphone camera.

News: This Is How the Augmented Reality World of the Metaverse Could Be Opened to the Visually Impaired

One of the primary assumptions in the world of VR and augmented reality is that the user has the ability to "see" virtual objects and the real world structures around them. But what if the user doesn't have perfect eyesight, or any eyesight at all?

Market Reality: As Magic Leap & Microsoft Seek Funds, Educators Prepare the Next Class of AR Innovators

For a company who hasn't released a product and has a reputation for being secretive, Magic Leap sure has a tendency to make waves. Over the past few weeks, they've refreshed their website design, released an abstract YouTube video, and announced a partnership with Madefire to offer mixed reality comics on its device whenever it launches. Next, they are gearing up for another round of funding.

Market Reality: Apple Unveils New ARKit & Dev Tools, Unreal Engine Comes to HoloLens 2, & North Expands Focals Pop-Ups

While Apple's smartglasses development reportedly moves forward behind-the-scenes, the company continues to build on its AR software foundation in its mobile ecosystem with further iterations to its ARKit platform and the introduction of new AR development tools.

News: Snapchat Becomes SnapCAT with AR Lenses for Your Feline Friends

Have you ever browsed through Lenses on Snapchat and got bummed out when the app recommends that you "try this with a friend" and you're all alone? Well, now you can take AR snaps with your cat!