Next Reality Features

HoloLens Dev 101: The Unity Editor Basics

With any continuously active software, it can start to become fairly complex after a few years of updates. New features and revisions both get layered into a thick mesh of menu systems and controls that even pro users can get bewildered by. If you are new to a certain application after it has been around for many years, it can be downright intimidating to know where to begin.

NR50: Next Reality's 50 People to Watch in Augmented & Mixed Reality

Throughout this NR50 series, we have talked about the incredible growth the augmented and mixed reality space has seen in the last year. More devices, software, developers, and use-cases seem to arrive daily. For this growth to have occurred, it took the work of many people, from many different backgrounds and skill sets — and Next Reality wants to recognize them for all that they have done and are doing.

Hands-On: Hands-On with Spatial's Remote Meeting App on Microsoft HoloLens

In recent years, many software publishers have tried to sell the business community on remote meetings via VR, but if social media chatter is any indication, it hasn't taken off in a big way just yet. However, for some, the notion of holding remote meetings using augmented reality, a medium in which you're still directly tied to the real world and not closed off in a blindfold-style VR headset, might be the better solution.

Apple AR: Virtual Dog Demo by Ridgeline Could Be the New Tamagotchi

This demo made with Apple's ARKit is 13/10 and features a very good boy. Since the ARKit was announced, there have been rumors going around about what it could mean for pet lovers who want to see augmented reality dogs. The popular Twitter We Rate Dogs has created a Good Dogs Game app that lets you have a your own virtual dog, but now Ridgeline Labs have also entered the arena with an ARKit dog game of their own, and it's the best thing I've ever seen.

News: Experiments in Stock Market 3D Data Visualization on the HoloLens

HoloLens developer Michael Peters of In-Vizible has released quite a few videos since receiving his HoloLens last year. Many of his experiments are odd and funny, but some include serious potential approaches to data visualization. In the videos embedded below, you'll specifically see stock market information beautifully rendered in different ways to help understand the data.

News: The Best Augmented Reality of 2017

The augmented reality industry made great strides in 2017, but its apex is not even in sight. In terms of software, augmented reality is approaching meaningful mainstream awareness, thanks mostly to Apple and ARKit. Meanwhile, on the hardware side, AR is very much in its infancy, with headsets mostly limited to enterprise customers or developer kits and the majority of smartphones lacking the sensors necessary to achieve much more than parlor tricks.

News: ODG's New R-7HL Are the First Rugged Smartglasses Made Specifically for the Industrial Workforce

Osterhout Design Group just announced the upcoming release of the newest addition to their smartglasses lineup, the R-7HL, short for R-7 Hazardous Location. ODG worked directly with customers who work in extreme environments to come up with a durable solution that fits their needs; These smartglasses can not only survive but function well in many areas that would otherwise be considered too harsh for augmented reality tech.

News: How Virtual & Mixed Reality Trick Your Brain

Our brains do a magnificent amount of work to process visual stimuli, but they aren't difficult to fool. Optical illusions can trick our minds into believing what we're seeing is real, even if it's not—and virtual and mixed reality technologies take advantage of this little loophole in our brain to help us accept the unreal.

News: New Magic Leap Gesture Documentation Offers Insight into How Hands Will Make Its Digital World Come Alive

As the week of the Game Developer's Conference hits the mid-point, we've already had some major announcements hit the AR space. The specific timing of these announcements are thanks in part to a conference within a conference called VRDC, aimed at VR, AR, and MR developers. And while the week is hardly over, the announcement that is still having a big effect on the developer population is the reveal of the Creator Portal for the long-awaited Magic Leap One device.