Next Reality Features
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: Christie's App Brings the Art of the Rockefellers to Your Living Room via Augmented Reality
The latest update to the Christie's app for iPhones and iPads extends its augmented reality capabilities to the famed private art collection of David and Peggy Rockefeller.
How To: Film Your Own AR Music Videos with Vidiyo, Lego's TikTok Competitor
For its latest take on augmented reality-infused playsets, Lego is giving the young, and the simply young at heart, its twist on the viral lipsync format made popular by TikTok with Lego Vidiyo.
News: CES Wrap-Up — 2018 Event Confirms Race for Consumer AR Smartglasses Will Be Marathon Rather Than Sprint
Coming into this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the common sentiment among observers was that this was expected to be the big year for augmented reality.
Market Reality: Magic Leap Preps Magicverse, Facebook Reveals Computer Vision Research, HBO's 'Watchmen' Enter AR
Over the past year, Magic Leap has teased its cross-platform vision of the AR cloud, which it dubs the Magicverse. While the company shared a timeline for its debut next year, it also served up new developer tools for the present.
News: Build 3D Content on Your Smartphone or Tablet with Torch's New Mobile App
Augmented reality experiences for consumers, for the most part, are relegated to mobile devices at present, but creation and development of those experiences is still a province of desktop computers.
News: Knight Foundation Awards Five Museums $750K in Funding for Immersive Exhibits with Microsoft
Augmented reality seems to come into its own in museums, where audiences are ready and willing to try out new immersive tech. Now, that tech-powered palette is about to get a little larger.
Market Reality: Magic Leap Dominated Investment & Innovation in 2018, While New York Times Maintains Its AR Media Lead
The augmented reality industry has a bright future built on innovation and growth, but that doesn't mean we can't look back at the close of the year to see what the industry has accomplished from a business perspective.
News: UK's Largest Children's Hospital Is Adopting HoloLens to Assist Surgeons
In recent years, medical professionals have demonstrated how the HoloLens can assist in surgeries, ranging from collarbone repairs to spinal surgeries to cosmetic procedures. Now, the largest children's hospital in the United Kingdom is also ready to deploy the technology.
News: Google Arts & Culture Builds AR Replica of Bangladeshi Mosque as Part of Historic Site Preservation Project
In recent years, Google's Arts & Culture project has been leading the way in terms of innovating the practice of using technology to preserve landmarks and great works of art via digital 3D copies. Increasingly, these efforts are also giving history buffs the chance to experience classic works and spaces with unparalleled intimacy through the wonders of augmented reality.
News: Developers Can Now Add Native 3D Content Search & Download from Sketchfab to Their Apps
Sketchfab, one of the leading 3D model aggregators, continues to defend its turf from encroachment by Google. This time, the company has deployed a new API that gives developers even easier access to Sketchfab's extensive library.
News: Hang Out with Some of Your Favorite Characters Using the 8i Holo App
Can't wait till Apple's ARKit is released? Me neither. Luckily, a fun new app launched today that is close to what the ARKit promises to deliver in a few months.
Apple AR: Color BlastAR Rides the Rainbow from Tango to ARKit
Mobile game companies Hit Point Studios and Legacy Games have adapted their Color BlastAR augmented reality game for iOS with the ARKit platform.
Video: AfterNow Makes Smart Home Lighting Change Colors with the HoloLens
These days, if you walk through Best Buy, you will see an entire area designated to smart home technology. Thanks to the interest and growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), this exciting new technology has finally entered the mainstream. Appliances, thermostats, and even the lighting throughout your house can be controlled from your computer or smartphone. You could also use artificial intelligence; Simply tell Amazon's Alexa what you want your house to do, and she will do it.
News: Startup DronOSS Sets Its Sights on Fewer Drone Crashes with Augmented Reality Pilot Training
Drone mishaps, such as the collision that scratched a military helicopter in New York, are becoming something of an everyday hazard.
News: Qualcomm & Bose Back RealWear's Enterprise Augmented Reality Wearables in $80 Million Funding Round
Some investors play the short game, placing their bets on industries that show the quickest return on their investment, and, in the augmented reality space, that means the enterprise sector.
News: How to Watch the Microsoft Mobile World Congress Event Rumored to Reveal HoloLens 2
We already know that Microsoft has something big planned for later this month, and now we have details on how to watch the company's big reveal.
News: HBO Returns to the AR Well with 'Watchmen' Lens on Snapchat
After leaning on augmented reality for its outdoor advertising, HBO has called on augmented reality again via Snapchat to promote its Watchmen series.
News: Snap Adds Upper Garment Segmentation, Multiple Object Detection, & More with Lens Studio 4.1
After adding full-body tracking and 3D body mesh in its past two Lens Studio updates, Snap continues to supply creators, particularly apparel retailers, with tools for creating clothing-centric AR experiences.
Opinion: Cash App & Megan Thee Stallion — Making Smartglasses Cool Again Starts Here, with the Culture
No, Jack Dorsey's Cash app isn't about to launch an augmented reality device (er, I don't think...), but its latest outing is about as close as we've come to full confirmation that the wearable AR age is upon us.
News: Lenovo Debuts Sleek ThinkReality A3 Smartglasses for Industrial & Office Use
Roughly a year and a half after unveiling the HoloLens-like ThinkReality A6, Lenovo is back with its take on enterprise-grade smartglasses, and the results look impressive. Then again, looks can be deceiving.
Market Reality: NFT & AR Converge with Atari, MF Doom & Virtual Homes, Plus Samsung Partners with Snapchat
Snapchat may trail Facebook and Instagram in terms of daily active users, but a new partnership with Samsung may get those innovative AR Lenses onto the mobile devices of a lot more users.
Apple AR: Alexa Plays Nice with ARKit in Demo
A developer has previewed a pair of potential applications built on ARKit that can be triggered by Alexa, the resident voice assistant of the Amazon Echo.
News: Samsung Patent Shows Move Toward Hybrid Augmented, Mixed, & Virtual Reality Device
Last month, Dr. Sung-Hoon Hong, Vice President of Samsung Electronics, announced at the Virtual Reality Summit in San Diego that Samsung would be moving into the augmented reality market. According to a recently published patent application, that move has begun.
News: Google Brings Persistent Content Support to Cloud Anchors, Expands Augmented Faces to iOS
With Android 10 hitting the streets (at least for those mobile devices that get quick updates) and the public release of iOS 13 dropping on Sept. 19, Google is releasing an update on Thursday to ARCore that adds some fantastic new benefits to its cross-platform capabilities.
News: 'The Matrix' Movie Effects Pioneer & Former Magic Leap Exec Reveals 'Tragic Story' of Startup's Recent Struggles
Magic Leap has had a rough couple of years, highlighted by high-profile executive departures, lawsuits, troublesome patent shuffles, and massive layoffs.
News: JigSpace Puts Together $4.7 Million in Funding to Expand AR Tutorial Technology
The startup JigSpace, which was among the first apps to support ARKit and LiDAR for iPhone augmented reality apps, has capitalized on its early mover status by innovating within the space.
News: ODG Video Shows Off Hands-Free ReticleOS Media Player for R-9 Smartglasses
A couple of months ago, I got the opportunity to get a sneak peek at a new media interface for ODG's R-9 Smartglasses, and the experience was impressive. Now, after weeks of keeping it under wraps, I can finally show off what I saw.
News: Snapchat Refocuses on Its Camera & AR Magic in New Marketing Push
With a fresh series of videos and a new webpage, Snapchat has composed an answer to its own question, "What is Snapchat?"
News: Google & Magic Leap Developer Create Augmented Reality Mobile Apps for Warping Real World into Art
Because of its ability to place digital content into the real world, augmented reality lends itself well to artists and creatives.
News: Leap Motion Nearly Jumped on Board Apple's AR Train Twice, Report Says
In recent years, Apple has assembled its augmented reality team and supply chain through a series of acquisitions, high-profile hires, and strategic investments, but at least one potentially major deal was recently ditched.
News: Lucasfilm Looks to Lenovo for Star Wars Augmented Reality
The Force is strong with Lenovo, who is working with Disney and Lucasfilm to deliver an augmented reality headset and lightsaber handle for the forthcoming Star Wars: Jedi Challenges game.
Apple AR: Deck Your Halls with Boughs of AR via IKEA Place & Other Holiday-Themed Apps
They say if you don't believe, you don't receive. Therefore, I'll choose to believe that this holiday season, Santa's elves have learned how to code in Unity and leverage ARKit to deliver these jolly AR apps for helping children of all ages virtually decorate their homes.
News: Meta Caters to Design Professionals with 3D CAD Support for Solidworks
In another move that pushes Meta 2 toward becoming a legitimate workplace tool, Meta Company has partnered with Dassault Systèmes to bring augmented reality support to the latter's Solidworks 3D CAD software.
News: Japan-Based Developer Unleashes Giant AR Gundam Robot on the Public via HoloLens 2
The future of the HoloLens 2, according to Microsoft, is all about enterprise use cases. But that doesn't mean some of the more creative-minded HoloLens developers won't bend the top-tier augmented reality device to their own designs. The latest example of this trend comes from Japan.
News: Snap Boosts Augmented Reality Body-Tracking Arsenal with Acquisition of Ariel AI
The year 2021 is already promising to yield a number of major shifts in the augmented reality landscape, and Snap is signaling that it has every intention of being an aggressive part of that narrative.
News: Honda Thaws Our Cold Hearts with Augmented Reality Get Well Cards for Hospitalized Children
Augmented reality has given companies worldwide great powers for innovating business practices and engaging customers, but on Monday, Honda demonstrated that with great power, also comes great social responsibility.
News: AR-Enabled Moon Model Shoots Past Crowdfunding Goal
San Francisco-based startup AstroReality is putting the AR in lunar with a high-detailed model of the moon that comes to life through an accompanying augmented reality mobile app.
News: Image Recognition Expected to Generate $40 Billion by 2021
A market research report, posted on February 27, 2017, forecasts that the image recognition market will grow to nearly $40 billion worldwide by 2021. The market, which includes augmented reality applications, hardware, and technology, generated an estimated $15.95 billion in 2016. The report estimates the market to grow by a compound annual growth rate of 19.5% over the next five years.
News: Unity Releases Open Beta Project MARS Companion App for Capturing Scene Data & Creating Content
Unity often reminds us that the majority of AR apps and experiences are built with the Unity 3D engine, and now the Unity MARS service, which facilitates easy AR creation for seasoned coders and newcomers.