Next Reality Features
Q&A with Jay Samit: The Future of AR Could Be a World of 'Times Square on Acid'
As augmented reality becomes more and more integrated into the mainstream, people have been wondering the future of AR is going to look like. Jay Samit has a pretty clear idea.
News: Century-Old Opera in UK Gets Augmented Reality Revamp via iOS App & Snapchat
A century-old opera is getting a revamp in the UK after swapping dusty wigs and curtains for augmented reality overlays and Snapchat filters.
News: Unity Offers AR/VR Training for Developers Through Udacity
As demand for AR and VR developers continues to increase, particularly with the advent of Apple's ARKit platform, Unity has partnered with online learning company Udacity to help developers sharpen their skills for these jobs.
News: Magic Leap Resolves Legal Conflict with Former Security Director
Flying under the radar during Magic Leap's big week at the Game Developers Conference, the company settled a potentially ugly lawsuit with a former employee.
Apple AR: Play 'Flat Pack' by Nitrome on the Surface of Any 3D Object
Gaming with augmented reality just keeps getting cooler and cooler.
News: Inside Magic Leap's Cinematic Partnership with Andy Serkis & The Imaginarium's Experimental Motion Capture Experience
By now, you've probably already seen Andy Serkis and his performance capture demo for Magic Leap. And sure, marrying motion capture acting and augmented reality sounds compelling, but how does it really work as an experience?
News: AWE Partners with Accessories Project to Deliver the Ultimate Augmented Reality-Powered Swag Bag
I'm here at the annual AWE event in Santa Clara, California, and the venue is just as packed, if not more so, than last year.
Apple AR: Redbubble Throws Pillows in AR with ARKit Update
While IKEA will employ ARKit to help you see how that new couch looks in your living room, Redbubble wants to show you throw pillows that match.
News: Verizon Acquires Jaunt After Startup Moves from VR Services to Augmented Reality Focus
It looks like Jaunt's pivot from VR to volumetric captures services for augmented reality experiences has paid off.
News: The Rock Pops Out of EW Cover with Augmented Reality
Usually paper beats rock. With augmented reality, The Rock beats paper. Using the Life VR app for iOS or Android, Entertainment Weekly readers can point their smartphones at the cover of the Dec. 8 edition to view a holiday greeting from Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, star of the forthcoming reboot, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.
News: Hulu, Coinbase, Ray-Ban & Captain Morgan Unlock Advertising Gold with Interactive AR Ads
We've reached the point in the trajectory of augmented reality's growth where AR advertising experiences are becoming commonplace tactics rather than rare experiments.
News: Oculus Releases Minecraft for the Samsung Gear VR
The team behind Minecraft, the popular open-world game beloved for its freedom to create and build, has teamed up with Oculus to release an official edition that takes you even further into the block-based world using a Samsung Gear VR headset. While the Oculus Rift version itself is still forthcoming, Gear VR users can play right now.
News: Hands-On with the Lego Snapchat Augmented Reality Experience That Lets You Build With Friends Remotely
The world of Lego is timeless primarily because everyone, regardless of age or background, can build a wide variety of amazing things with the simple component blocks from the classic toymaker.
News: Augmented Reality Masks from MF Doom Auctioned as NFTs Fetch $1.6 Million
The hype surrounding non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has reached astronomical levels over the past few weeks, and now the technology has intersected with augmented reality's orbit in a fantastic way.
News: How SilVR Thread Makes Compelling 360-Degree VR Videos
A 2D film can show you something, but a 3D film in virtual reality can make you feel it. If done right, you'll feel immersed in a new world that surrounds you. If done wrong, you'll get nauseous and uncomfortable. SilVR Thread, a 360-degree VR video company, figured out a few important ways to get the feeling right.
News: Prehistoric Creatures Return to Life via New iPhone AR App from Celebrity Historian David Attenborough
Apparently, we learned nothing from Jurassic Park, as scientists are still working on bringing extinct species back to life. Until that day comes, you can interact with long-lost animals through augmented reality...if you have a newer model iPhone.
News: Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel Revamps App's Content Strategy, Keeping Camera & AR at the Center
On Wednesday, Snap, Inc. unveiled a revamp of its Snapchat app that draws a hard line between content from your friends and content from professional media organizations.
News: Nreal Announces Move to Expand AR Smartglasses Sales to US, Europe & Launch Enterprise Edition in 2021
After piloting the Nreal Light in South Korea and Japan via carrier partnerships and securing another round of funding, Nreal is now ready to begin selling the consumer edition of the smartglasses to the western world as well as introduce a version for enterprise customers.
News: Now You Can Bring NASA's Spacefaring Robots into Your Home via ARCore
Space might be the final frontier, but NASA is making a detour into augmented reality first. The Spacecraft AR app, developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in collaboration with Google, debuted exclusively for Android this week (an iOS version is also in the works).
News: Google Glass Enterprise Edition Open for Business
Perhaps in tribute to the season premiere of Game of Thrones, Google Glass is demonstrating that what is dead may never die, as Alphabet's X (formerly Googlex) has revealed that the Enterprise Edition of the smart glasses are now available to businesses.
News: Snap's Spectacles Turned into Immersive AR Dance Teacher via Lens Studio
The debut of the augmented reality version of Snap's Spectacles came with several examples of how the wearable can allow creators to transform the world around them.
News: Form Adds Support for Heart Rate Tracking via Polar Sensors to AR Swim Goggles
Less than a month after launching its augmented reality Swim Goggles, wearables startup Form is preparing to add a major new feature for aquatic athletes.
News: PTC Offers Free Trial of ThingWorx Platform
For companies wary of the temperature, PTC just made it easier for them to dip their toes in the waters of augmented reality.
News: DottyAR Lets You View 3D Models on Smartphones & Coming Soon to ODG Smartglasses
While augmented reality is mostly in the minds of consumers in the form of Pokémon GO, AR has been popular behind the scenes, with AR companies marketing it as a tool to help business operations become more efficient. This business-to-business market is the target of the new app DOTTYAR, which "provides 3D visualization tools for augmented reality viewers."
News: See a Fully Realized Mixed Reality Future in This Award-Winning Short Film
It's impossible to predict the future, but it's fun to try. Adapted from Daniel H. Wilson's short story of the same name, filmmaker Giacomo Cimini's short film "The Nostalgist" shows a futuristic world where mixed reality serves as an escape from a less-desirable physical world.
AR Snapshots: Celebrate Pride Month with These Snapchat Augmented Reality Lenses
June is Pride Month, an annual celebration of LGBTQ+ communities in commemoration of the Stonewall uprising of 1969.
News: Facebook Messenger Update Targets Augmented Reality Features in Snapchat
Continuing its unrelenting (and mostly successful) campaign against Snapchat, on Tuesday, Facebook announced the addition of "World Effects" to its Messenger app.
Apple AR: Watch Our World Change from Night to Day Using ARKit
We've seen some pretty cool space-related Apple ARKit demos in the past few weeks. One guy literally had the entire solar system rotating around the sun in his bedroom. Now, a recent demo shows that you can get up close and personal with our Earth, watching how it changes as it rotates.
News: Woah! Snapchat Wants to Map Your World with AR
Snapchat is attempting to take over the world via augmented reality technology. Well, it's more of a virtual makeover than a takeover, but still ...
Market Reality: Mira Closes Funding Round as Cappasity Prepares Blockchain Crowdsale
If competition in the augmented reality space was a spectator sport, then ARKit, ARCore, and HoloLens dominate the prime-time broadcasts on ESPN.
News: Snapchat Extends 3D Camera Effects from Spectacles 3 to iPhone's TrueDepth Camera
After adding dual cameras to its camera glasses, Snap is finally taking full advantage of the depth-sensing abilities of newer iPhones as well, extending the use of its new 3D Camera Mode.
News: Vermeer Beta iPhone App Lets You Use Augmented Reality to Map Out Your Drone Flight
Augmented reality and drones already go together like turkey and stuffing, but a new iOS app adds some spice to the combination with a new kind of flight path automation.
News: Coming Soon to Mixed Reality—Audio Sticky Notes by Holo Voice
When you want to leave someone a quick message, you often write it down on a sticky note and paste it to the relevant location. Alternatively, you call to leave a voicemail. Holo Voice Memo lets you do both at the same time by leaving an audio clip on a physical object in the room so anyone with a HoloLens and the app can play it back.
News: Alibaba Leads InfinityAR's Latest $18M Round—Diversifying Their Augmented Reality Portfolio
China's e-commerce site Alibaba has been making heavy investments in augmented and mixed reality startups. In February of this year, they led a $793 million round of Series C financing of Magic Leap. And now they've just invested in Israeli-based InfinityAR, which acquired $18 million in its Series C financing.
News: AR Cloud Startup Ubiquity6 Turns Up Volume on Audio AR Through Acquisition of Wavy
Among a crowded field of AR cloud companies aiming to power the future of augmented reality by creating a world of persistent holographic content that lives in a cloud, accessible across devices and accounts, Ubiquity6 is hoping it has found a way to differentiate its platform.
Apple AR: Vogue App Shines an AR Spotlight on iPhone X Owners
When it comes to identifying what's fashionable on the runway, including cutting edge tech that bleeds into the mainstream of style, Vogue magazine stands at the top of the list.
News: Team Behind Popular Photo App FaceTune2 Jumps on the AR Bandwagon with Cosmetics Try-On Filters
Following in the steps of Snapchat, Instagram, and YouCam, another popular photo app has gotten into the virtual try-on augmented reality game.
News: Transform Your Friend into an AR Musical Synthesizer via This HoloLens 2 NFT App
One of the oldest electronic musical instruments is the theremin, a synthesizer that generates sound based on hand gestures, as featured in the classic "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys.
Apple AR: Upcoming Game Easily Shows You How to Master Paintball
If you've ever wanted to hone your paintball skills, without spending a ton of money and making a huge mess, Show Me Virtual and Apple's ARKit have an app for you.
News: Snapchat Assists Warriors & Raptors Fans in Rooting for Their Teams with NBA Finals AR Experiences
With the defending champion Golden State Warriors and Drake's favorite team, the Toronto Raptors, set to face off in the NBA Finals starting Thursday, Snapchat has gifted hoops fans with a pair of augmented reality experiences.