Month: December 2020

We often discuss the augmented reality efforts coming from the biggest players in Silicon Valley like Google, Facebook, Apple, and others, but one name that keeps coming up when you really begin to dig into the AR space is Vuzix. Since the late ’90s, the company has quietly but deliberately worked to build itself into a viable competitor in the enterprise space via its wearable display technology. But as the AR industry gradually spreads into the mainstream, Vuzix has subtly shifted its product designs to meet a future where AR isn’t outlier tech but standard operating gear on the factory… more

A lot of digital ink has been spilled heaping scorn on Magic Leap. Much of that media schadenfreude was due to what some believed were unmet promises versus some of the early hype around the product. Others just seemed to be rubbed the wrong way by the startup’s Apple-esque secrecy and penchant for attempting to coin new terms and frameworks for things that were, mostly, already in play. But amid the fog of all of the negative headlines, something was lost. Namely, a lot of the great work delivered by a group of incredibly talented people within the company. Specifically, the Magic Leap… more

Just because 2020 has been rough for most of the planet, there’s no reason you can’t enjoy a bit of holiday cheer as you prepare to say goodbye to this year using the power of augmented reality. If you’re living in an area that’s warm, but you’d still like to experience “a white Christmas,” that’s now possible thanks to the Adobe Aero app. • Don’t Miss: Welcome Baby Yoda into Your Personal Space with Google Search AR Adobe and partner game studio, San Francisco-based Rolling Heads, have published an animated AR snowman and ice reindeer scene that effectively puts a virtual life-sized snow… more

Just because 2020 has been rough for most of the planet, there’s no reason you can’t enjoy a bit of holiday cheer as you prepare to say goodbye to this year using the power of augmented reality. If you’re living in an area that’s warm, but you’d still like to experience “a white Christmas,” that’s now possible thanks to the Adobe Aero app. • Don’t Miss: Welcome Baby Yoda into Your Personal Space with Google Search AR Adobe and partner game studio, San Francisco-based Rolling Heads, have published an animated AR snowman and ice reindeer scene that effectively puts a virtual life-sized snow… more

At first glance, it may not sound like there’s much value in doing a crossword puzzle in augmented reality, but The New York Times has managed to revamp the pastime as an immersive game. On Tuesday, the media company published its December 22 mini-crossword puzzle via the Spark AR platform for Instagram as Shattered Crossword. Don’t Miss: New York Times Debuts Location-Based Air Pollution AR Visualization for Apple iOS Devices Rather than view the puzzle in AR and fill in the blanks, the potential letters are splintered and scattered about in the space above the puzzle, with the pieces of… more

The economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have been felt in practically every business sector. Now, as we look back at the top augmented reality investments of 2020, the AR industry has been no exception. While the overall dollar value of this year’s top 10 investments was higher than any year since we began tracking AR funding in 2017, the results are a bit skewed by an astronomical funding round at the top of the 2020 list. • Don’t Miss: Next Reality’s 30 People to Watch in Augmented Reality for 2020 After discounting the top funding round of each year, the average funding round in… more

Help me, George Clooney. You’re my only hope. If that mash-up of cultural references doesn’t make sense, it will momentarily. To promote The Midnight Sky, the new film starring George Clooney and dropping via Netflix on December 23 (Happy Festivus), the streaming studio is launching an augmented reality experience that gives consumers the ability to record and send holographic messages, not unlike the iconic plea for help sent by Princess Leia in Star Wars: A New Hope. Don’t Miss: Netflix Film ‘Anon’ Paints Dystopian View of Augmented Reality That Obliterates Privacy The web-based AR… more

The team over at Spatial isn’t done innovating its way through augmented reality in 2020. Just days after adding a mobile option to its groundbreaking Spatial virtual collaboration product, the company is releasing Tele, a new app geared toward more casual, AR-powered video chats. • Don’t Miss: Next Reality’s 30 People to Watch in Augmented Reality for 2020 The Tele app uses the same easy avatar creation process as Spatial, which can take an existing face photo on your phone and wrap it around an avatar. Alternatively, you can simply snap a selfie and use that photo for your avatar. Once… more

You won’t have to ask Santa for holiday-themed augmented reality experiences, because practically any social and shopping app that offers AR effects has them available now. Despite the relative ubiquity, a new set of seasonal AR Lenses in Snapchat (iOS | Android) stand out, as they also showcase the app’s powerful machine learning chops. Don’t Miss: Next Reality Snap Spectacles 3 Holiday Giveaway! For example, the Family Portrait Lens leverages the aging and gender-shifting effects from the Time Machine and Gender Swap Lenses to create a virtual family based on your likeness, with yourself… more

Google, you have something that I want. You may think you have some idea of what you are in possession of, but you do not. In a few moments, it will be mine…and it can be yours, too, dear readers. That something, of course, is Baby Yoda…er, Grogu…from the Disney+ Star Wars series The Mandalorian. But you won’t have to fight Mando or Moff Gideon to obtain him. Don’t Miss: Star Wars Baby Yoda Unofficially Comes to Magic Leap via This Developer Experiment Now, if you search Google for either his colloquial label or his proper canon name, or even “The Child” as he was previously referred… more