Market Reality: More Magic Leap One Details Unearthed, Apple Adds to Its AR Team, & Snapchat Learns New Tricks

More Magic Leap One Details Unearthed, Apple Adds to Its AR Team, & Snapchat Learns New Tricks

The arrival of Magic Leap One is tantalizingly close and, although the company has been saving the last details for launch day, a few of the more important details were found this week hiding deep in the code on Magic Leap's website.

While Magic Leap's AR hardware will be here soon, two other companies rumored to be working on smartglasses made steps in the same direction. Apple has added a new team member with AR hardware credentials as well as a background in producing immersive apps, meanwhile Snapchat added new capabilities to its mobile app, which may eventually translate to its own smartglasses.

Magic Leap One Field of View, Battery Life, & Memory Specs Leak

In the lead up to the Magic Leap One launch, Magic Leap has been coy about what the actual field of view (FoV) is for its first commercial product.

Now, a developer noticed that the client-side source code of the FoV documentation (published last month as a placeholder with the just the text "Coming soon on launch day!") already included the final text of the document in a commented-out block of markdown, and has revealed the tightly held mystery.

In addition, we have more information regarding how the Magic Leap One will actually operate while in use.

Read on to find out what the Magic Leap One's field of view will be, as well as its battery life and memory specifications...

Image via Magic Leap

REALITY BITES: Although 6D.ai's AR Cloud platform is still in a closed beta, the company is itching to show off what developers can do with occlusion, persistence, and multi-user experiences. With the 6Demo-God Challenge, the startup will pay $1,000 for demos that it can include in a sizzle reel. Selected developers will also get recognition as 6D Development Partners and other perks.

Apple Augments AR Team with Former DAQRI Designer

Apple continues to build its augmented reality hardware and software team in stealth mode. The latest addition comes via the hiring of a former DAQRI user experience designer and VR app developer.

First reported by Variety, Sterling Crispin joined Apple in May as a prototyping researcher. Before joining Apple, Crispin published VR painting app Cyber Paint for the Oculus Go, Daydream, GearVR, and HTC Vive in 2017 through his own development company. Prior to that, Crispin spent a little over two years at smartglasses maker DAQRI, first as an artist-in-residence and then as a lead UX designer.

Read on to find out how Crispin's role fits into Apple's AR plans...

Image by Cyber Paint/YouTube

REALITY BITES: There are more opportunities to join Apple's AR team, with 36 postings referencing augmented reality on the company's jobs page. One interesting role is "Software Engineer, AR Technology Evangelist," a person who will help developers build AR experiences with ARKit and Metal 2.

Snapchat Fends Off Facebook with Speech-Activated AR Experiences

Snapchat users are used to raising their eyebrows or opening their mouths to activate augmented reality face effects. Now, they get to use their voices as well.

On Wednesday, the speech-activated Lenses will begin appearing in the carousel and will continue to show up occasionally from here on out.

Read on to find out how the new capability works and why it is important in Snapchat's ongoing competition with Facebook. After that, check out what Snapchat did for Harry Potter's birthday...

Images via Snap

REALITY BITES: Add Lockheed Martin to the roster of manufacturers adopting AR in their operations. The Wall Street Journal reports that the company's space division is using the Microsoft HoloLens and Scope AR software to train engineers and assist them in manufacturing processes.

Every Friday, Next Reality reviews the latest headlines from the financial side of augmented and mixed reality. This weekly Market Reality column covers funding announcements, mergers and acquisitions, market analysis, and the like. Check out previous editions of Market Reality for more news you may have missed.

Just updated your iPhone? You'll find new features for TV, Messages, News, and Shortcuts, as well as important bug fixes and security patches. Find out what's new and changed on your iPhone with the iOS 17.6 update.

Cover image via Magic Leap

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