Next Reality Features
News: Facebook & Ray-Ban Stories Smartglasses, Details on the Specs, Colors, Prices, Software, and Availability
Just hours after an early leak via Twitter, Facebook and Ray-Ban have officially released their new wearable collaboration.
News: Holocaust Museum Preserves Memory of Victims & Survivors via Augmented Reality
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but augmented reality is giving the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum the ability to add a few more poignant real words to its exhibits.
News: Marina Abramovic's Volumetric Art Piece Heads for Christie's Auction Block After Debut in Magic Leap
Some people believe that art makes artists immortal, and now one of the best known performance artists on the planet is working on taking that immortality into the realm of augmented reality.
News: When the Web Exists in 3D Space, What Happens to the Browser?
Augmented and mixed reality experiences attempt to break us out of windowed computing experiences and allow us to place software anywhere in the room. But that software doesn't have to take a rectangular form—theoretically, the web doesn't have to restrict itself to a page in a browser any longer. Does this mark the end of the web browser entirely? Probably not. A lot of information works well on the page, and the Microsoft HoloLens still uses a pretty standard version of their own Edge brows...
News: Snapchat Takes a Trip to the Amusement Park with AR for Disney, Universal, & Six Flags
As if riding roller coasters and meeting your favorite childhood cartoon characters weren't amusing enough, Snapchat is amping up the fun with augmented reality at the world's leading amusements parks in the this summer.
How To: View Art from Your Chromecast in Augmented Reality
The Chromecast TV streaming lineup from Google is one of the more popular products in the category, primarily due to its low price tag and broad app support.
News: YouCam Unleashes Halloween Makeup Try-On Filters Sourced from Social Media Users
It takes confidence and guts to pull off attractive and yet adequately frightening Halloween makeup as an adult.
News: Lego's Newest Playsets Transform Normal Toys into Augmented Reality Experiences Across Platforms
Beloved toy maker Lego is returning to the realm of augmented reality, this time with an experience that explores supernatural fun.
News: Zoom Unveils Immersive Feature That Puts Multiple People in a Single Virtual Room
The era of virtual meetings has been evolving every few months, with augmented reality filters leading the charge in changing the way we interact when chatting via video streams.
News: Epson to Launch Moverio Assist as Easier to Deploy Smartglasses Remote Assistance Tool
The idea of remote assistant apps in augmented reality has been taking off in the last couple of years, but Epson is introducing a differing kind of solution for companies that may benefit from a more straightforward dynamic before going full-on immersive with higher-end AR remote assistance tools.
News: Facebook Finally Opens Oculus Quest Passthrough Feature to Developers, Making the VR Device an AR Playground
Facebook Reality Labs chief Andrew "Boz" Bosworth does a lot of hinting and teasing of what's coming next at Oculus, often with only a vague timeline on the horizon.
News: Volvo Teams with Unity to Let You Test Out the XC40 SUV in AR, Launches Developer Innovation Portal
To assist developers and researchers in their efforts to create apps and services for automobiles, Volvo Cars has launched a new Innovation Portal with useful new tools and assets.
News: Apple & Snapchat Use AR to Let You Travel on the New York Subway System via Apple Pay
Many years ago, when I first traveled to Tokyo, Japan, I was amazed by the contactless IC card turnstiles embedded in the county's subway system.
Apple AR: PuzzlAR Dazzles with Interface & Gameplay Designed for AR
Last week, I tried out StackAR, a puzzle app updated to support ARKit where the AR features felt mostly unnecessary.
News: Facebook's AR/VR Chief Andrew Bosworth Tapped as New CTO
If the importance of augmented reality and VR hardware to Facebook's future wasn't already clear enough, a shake-up in the executive ranks at the company has made it as clear as smartglasses lenses.
News: USA Today App Treats Fans with Oscars-Inspired AR Costume Showcase Featuring Black Panther, Mary Poppins, & More
The Oscars are fast approaching, which means that all the most talked about films are getting a second dose of heavy promotion in hopes of winning an Academy Award.
News: Former Google Augmented Reality Engineering Lead Takes Over Facebook's Portal Hardware Team
It looks like Facebook really likes Google's augmented reality leadership talent, as the social media giant has hired away another employee from the AR and VR team at Mountain View to lead its team for a product that brings Facebook's AR platform into homes.
News: Google Releases Glass Enterprise Edition 2, Includes Qualcomm Snapdragon XR1Upgrade
As the tech world patiently waits for the advent of mainstream consumer smartglasses, Google is content to stick to the business world (for now).
News: Snapchat, Google & Verizon Highlight Humanity's Impact on the Environment with AR for Earth Day
It's Earth Day, which means that nonprofits, individuals, and brands are making a concerted effort to raise awareness of environmental issues and how to change behaviors to reverse impacts of pollution, deforestation, and suburban sprawl, among others.
News: What Is All This Stuff About Augmented Reality? A Primer for the New Enthusiast
We are in a pretty major technology boom at the moment. One that will likely make the industrial revolution look tiny. And one of these technologies that are building up to lead the way is something called augmented reality.
News: Niantic Conjures Preview of Harry Potter Augmented Reality Game, Opens Pre-Registration on Google Play
While a release date for Harry Potter: Wizards Unite has not yet materialized, co-developers Niantic and WB Games have finally released gameplay footage and an in-depth game description to whet the appetites of eager Harry Potter fans.
News: Watch a Demo of Leap Motion's Mobile Hand Tracking in New Video
Leap Motion, an augmented and virtual reality control system, has proven to be a force of nature when it comes to pushing hand-tracking tech forward. Now they've released a video showcasing their "Blocks" demo, which is already integrated into the reference headset kit designed by Qualcomm for VR companies "to take and sell their own branded devices with."
Market Reality: Air Force Gets Immersive, Crypto's AR Future, Inside Amazon's Echo Frames, & Metaverse Goes Mainstream
The march to the mainstreaming of augmented reality can sometimes seem slow, but this week things picked up in earnest.
How To: Use Your Smartphone's Camera to Instantly Translate Anything
If you're standing in a foreign city, surrounded by signage in a language you don't understand, you won't suddenly be able to read it. But with a clever feature in Google's Translate app, your smartphone can.
How To: Set Up Your Phone with the Lenovo Mirage AR Headset for 'Star Wars: Jedi Challenges'
Just in time for the holiday season, Lenovo has released its Mirage AR head-mounted display with the Star Wars: Jedi Challenges game and accessories. Unfortunately, while its price point is a fraction of most other AR headsets, at the moment, it does have a few issues with the setup process.
How To: Why & When to Evolve Your Pokémon in Pokémon GO
Like previous installments in the Pokémon series, as you progress through Pokémon GO you'll be able to evolve your Pokémon into more-powerful monsters with new and more-damaging attacks. However, unlike older entries in the series, your Pokémon won't simply evolve when they reach a certain level. Instead, you'll have to "feed" them a certain amount of character-specific candy to induce the transformation.
How To: The Ultimate Guide to Hatching Eggs in Pokémon GO
Finding Pokémon in the wild isn't the only way to add to your collection in Pokémon GO—you're also able to hatch your own from eggs that you've gotten from PokéStops.
News: Bank of England Teams with Snapchat to Embed AR Animation in New 20-Pound Banknotes
The UK has officially exited the European Union, completing the long and tumultuous Brexit story and putting the storied nation once again on its own on the international stage.
News: Microsoft Has Figured Out How to Double Field of View on HoloLens
One of the most highly-cited drawbacks to the HoloLens is its limited field of view (FOV), but now it appears that Microsoft has solved that problem.
Exclusive: AR Startup Meta Company Shuts Down Amid Asset Foreclosure Sale, Patent Fight, & Executive Departures
The last time we heard from Meta, the makers of the Meta 2 augmented reality headset, things looked pretty bleak. Now, as several new facts have come to light, we have confirmation regarding the beleaguered company's fate: Meta is done.
News: Here's Your First Look at the US Army's Combat-Ready HoloLens 2 in Action
Though Microsoft has had trouble keeping up with the demand for HoloLens 2, the company has been able to supply modified headsets to the US Army.
News: HoloLens Assists in Live Surgery
Numerous examples exist of doctors and surgeons using HoloLens to plan surgeries. The device has even been used to view reference images during a procedure and stream it to a remote audience. Until recently, it has not been used to augment the surgeon's view of the patient during a live surgery.
ARKit 101: Creating Simple Interactions in Augmented Reality for the iPhone & iPad
As a developer, before you can make augmented-reality robots that move around in the real world, controlled by a user's finger, you first need to learn how to harness the basics of designing AR software for a touchscreen interface.
How To: 10 Virtual Reality Apps to Get You Started with Google Cardboard
Virtual reality is all the rage these days, especially with devices like the Oculus Rift, Gear VR, and HTC Vive hitting shelves lately. But before any of those fancy, expensive headsets ever made it to the market, Google came up with a thrifty and inventive substitute in the form of Google Cardboard.
News: Here Are All the Things in You Can Do in Augmented Reality with the Samsung Galaxy S9 & S9+
Samsung's big reveal of the Galaxy S9 and S9+ at Mobile World Congress revolved around its "reimagined" camera and augmented reality capabilities.
News: Magic Leap Acquires Augmented Reality Telepresence Startup Mimesys
Just months after we previewed the augmented reality, volumetric video conferencing powers of Mimesys, the company has undergone a major change — it's now a part of Magic Leap.
News: New Magic Leap Images Appear as Saudi Prince Gets Demo from CEO Rony Abovitz
It turns out that the government of Saudi Arabia has managed to do something last month's Game Developers Conference couldn't — give us a few new glimpses of the Magic Leap One being worn by someone other than Shaq.
NR30: Next Reality's 30 People to Watch in Augmented Reality for 2020
The year 2020 was a pivotal span of time during which the word "virtual" took on a brand new meaning. Instead of referring to VR or augmented reality, the term was hijacked to describe meeting across long distances through a variety of software tools, most often through video.
How To: Share Photos & Videos with the Microsoft HoloLens
Microsoft's HoloLens comes with helpful features for capturing video and photos, but sharing whatever you record isn't as straightforward as you might expect. So here are the many ways to get your media off the device to share with the world.
News: Two Doctors Simplify Spinal Surgery with the HoloLens
True innovation tends to come from the places we least expect as developers. The Microsoft HoloLens is still a very new product, and some of the other headsets are still just ideas, so the rules for mixed reality are not set in stone. That means all the real problems to be solved are yet to come.