Month: April 2021

There’s already some fierce competition between Snap and Facebook in the AR space, but it’s about to heat up even more, with Snap snatching up a 3D mapping startup that could add some new AR capabilities to its arsenal. Meanwhile, Facebook is investing a sizable portion of its research and development budget on AR and VR. On the hardware front, startups Campfire and Tooz previewed AR wearables with very specific use cases. Finally, Zoom and Apple have added new immersive features that push the boundaries of their respective video apps. Snap Acquires 3D Mapping Startup Pixel8.Earth The… more

Facebook’s annual earnings call on Wednesday didn’t come with any big surprises, that is, if you took everything at face value. However, if you read between the lines, and paid close attention to the very specific and intentional language the company’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, used, then a few things stood out that reveal exactly where Facebook intends to take its nearly 3 billion users in the next year. • Don’t Miss: Facebook Reality Labs Chief Teases AR Coming to Oculus Quest Gaming, Delves into Future Smartglasses Hardware As for Facebook’s earnings, you won’t be surprised to know that… more

The progress Tooz has been making in the smartglasses space has been mostly kept under wraps, but the company is slowly giving us a deeper look at what it has in store for smartglasses wearers. In the latest update, Tooz and Adidas have revealed footage that shows off what the collaboration looks like in the field. Don’t Miss: Deutsche Telekom Opens Early Access to Tooz Smartglasses via Dev Kit The actual augmented reality footage appears to still be in the “concept design” phase. However, the hardware is complete and we get to see it on an athlete’s face as he uses the Adidas Runtastic… more

Ever since the debut of the LiDAR Scanner in the latest batch of Apple’s iPhones and iPads, the questions have swirled as to how this would benefit augmented reality interactions. Well, now we have one major new treat that could spur even more adoption and it’s called AR Spaces. • Don’t Miss: Apple’s Clips App Lets You Put Yourself Inside the World of ‘The Incredibles 2’ The new feature is included in the 3.1 version of the Clips app and allows users to use an iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max, and iPad Pro to scan a room and then have fun AR effects applied to the newly mapped environment… more

The augmented reality space is no longer about if but when every company and creator will use some kind of immersive device and software to produce and distribute 3D content. Now, a surprise new contender has entered the AR arena and it’s called Campire. • Don’t Miss: Looking Glass Teams with Reggie Watts to Auction Holographic NFT Art, Paving Way for Popularizing AR Art You Can Hold The company emerged out of stealth on Tuesday, finally showing off its Campfire AR headset and system in action. Operating from California, the company raised $8 million in funding to fuel its entry into the… more

The concept of Metaverse, otherwise referred to as AR cloud, where a digital twin of the real world filled with virtual content anchored persistently for all to see, has been a sci-fi dream of futurists for years and an aim for most tech companies who are serious about AR. It appears Snapchat’s parent company Snap shares those aspirations. Don’t Miss: How to Use Your Favorite Snapchat AR Lenses on Zoom, Skype, Meet & Other Video Conferencing Apps This week, 3D mapping startup Pixel8.Earth confirmed that Snap has acquired the company. An SEC filing for Snap’s quarterly earnings report… more

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. Now Zoom, the current leader in the virtual meetings space, has changed the game again by bring a new kind of immersiveness to virtual meetings with Immersive View. • Don’t Miss: Arvizio Brings AR Collaboration to Zoom Meetings with Immerse 3D App for Smartphones, HoloLens & Magic Leap The new feature was officially launched on Monday and allows all participants in a Zoom meeting to put themselves in a virtual… more

As the sports world slowly gets back to normal while observing pandemic protocols, fans are once again being folded into the mix in innovative ways. The latest example comes from the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and uses augmented reality via the Snapchat app. • Don’t Miss: Wilder vs. Fury Boxing Rematch Will Feature an AR Experience & Sponsorship via a UFC Legend On Saturday, April 24, when users open the Snapchat app, a new sponsored Lens appears that allows anyone to make their picks for UFC 261. Using the head tracking feature in Snapchat, the Lens allows you to pick the… more

As a company, Facebook is not shy about talking up its AR smartglasses plans. The latest missive comes from two executives in charge of developing AR software and hardware. As far as we know, Amazon doesn’t have plans to make AR smartglasses yet (and audio-only smartglasses don’t count as AR). However, the company is getting into the salon business, and it does have plans for AR in that regard. Elsewhere, content is king, and AR is no exception. This week, Google, Snapchat, and Samsung demonstrated their latest examples of AR content and content generation for mobile devices. Facebook Execs… more

After integrating Snapchat into its latest Galaxy A Series smartphones, Samsung is trying out a new AR camera app for its army of mobile devices. The company recently released a beta version of AR Canvas, an experimental app for its Galaxy smartphones that gives users the ability to create semi-persistent AR scenes with a variety of images. Don’t Miss: Here Are All the Things in You Can Do in Augmented Reality with the Samsung Galaxy S9 & S9+ Using the rear-facing camera, users can type out and anchor 3D text, doodle, embed GIFs, and place photos from their photo gallery into their physical… more