Market Reality: Upskill Fields Funding, Leap Motion Faces Lawsuit & Intel Confronts Challenges of AR Adoption

Augmented reality business followers, we've got good news and bad news.

First, the good news: Upskill closed another round of funding, this time led by strategic investors Cisco and Accenture. (Well, this is probably bad news if you're competing with them on the enterprise AR front.)

Now the bad news: Leap Motion's hand-tracking tech is the subject of a patent infringement lawsuit.

On the forward-looking end of the business, the head of Intel Labs recently delivered a presentation that could be the basis of the playbook for many companies seeking to make a dollar on this whole augmented reality business.

Upskill Finds Funding from Strategic Investors Cisco & Accenture

Enterprise augmented reality software provider Upskill has raised $17.2 million in its latest round of funding, led by new investors Cisco and Accenture.

Last year, the company closed a Series B round of funding led by strategic investors Boeing HorizonX and GE Ventures, who also participated in this latest round, along with New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and others.

Accenture has additional plans for Upskill and its platform. Keeping reading to find out what those plans are...

REALITY BITES: Augmented reality will look pretty at SXSW, as L'Oreal will show off its ModiFace-powered experience, while Perfect Corp. will demo its YouCam Makeup app. The conference schedule is packed with AR presentations and events as well.

Leap Motion Served with Patent Infringement Lawsuit

Patent holder Genedics, LLC has filed a legal complaint alleging that hand-tracking startup Leap Motion is infringing on its intellectual property.

In documents filed on Feb. 15 in the US District Court of Delaware, Genedics claims that Leap Motion's motion control technology, specifically Leap Motion's controllers and software (particularly as used with the Unity 3D engine), infringes on its patents.

For more on the patents Leap Motion has allegedly infringed upon, and why the name Genedics sounds familiar, keep reading...

Intel Labs Lead Presents Vision for Moving AR into Mainstream

Because augmented reality is still so new to so many people, there are a number of would-be experts opining online, often repeating basic facts anyone with a spare 15 minutes can find on their own. That's why it's important to point out when someone delivers what could be considered the ultimate cheat sheet for ramping up your AR IQ if you're unfamiliar with the finer points of the space.

Today, that honor goes to none other than AR pioneer Ronald Azuma, who delivered a nearly hour-long speech back on Jan. 31 at the 30th annual International Symposium on Electronic Imaging, held in Northern California. In addition to his pioneering work in AR, spanning back a couple of decades when he developed one of the first basic AR headset displays, he's also a lead engineer at Intel Labs.

What's his formula for pushing augmented reality into the mainstream? Read on to find out...

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.