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Two brands with affinities for augmented reality, Marvel and the NBA, joined forces to inject some AR superpowers into Monday night’s matchup of the Golden State Warriors and New Orleans Pelicans. While ESPN carried the traditional broadcast of the game, ESPN2 delivered a special broadcast called Marvel’s Arena of Heroes. The alternate broadcast was injected with comic book-style scorebox and graphics and various quotes from Marvel movies spliced into the play-by-play announcements, such as “Steph Curry is inevitable.” Don’t Miss: AT&T and NBA Launch Mobile AR Experience via Chicago Bulls… more

Thanks to the grandest of puns, May the 4th is Star Wars Day. And what better way to pay tribute to the space opera than with the augmented reality superpowers of Snapchat. While Disney has used AR via Snapchat, Facebook, and Google, among other outlets, to promote Star Wars properties, and now Lens Studio for Snapchat has enabled creators to build their own Star Wars AR experiences. Don’t Miss: Next Reality’s 30 People to Watch in Augmented Reality for 2020In previous editions of AR Snapshots, we’ve featured virtual lightsabers, Mandalorian helmets, and dancing Baby Yoda AR Lenses, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Here are more options for creating your own Star Wars AR content. This Is the Way for the Mandalorian AR EffectsThe Disney Plus series The Mandalorian has pumped some newfound excitement into the franchise. In turn, it has served as the muse for multiple Lenses, with some better than others. The viral star of the show, of course, is Baby Yoda. Thanks to the Baby Yoda…more

The Chicago Bulls may not be very relevant in the current NBA standings, but they do lead the league in one other area. With an assist from Nexus Studios, AT&T has debuted StatsZone, an augmented reality experience that presents game statistics in an immersive format, in the Chicago Bulls app. Don’t Miss: NBA AR App Launches on Android & Adds Portals to Playoffs Leveraging ARKit from Apple and ARCore from Google for horizontal plane detection, StatZone anchors a tabletop-sized virtual basketball court with customizable dashboards, shot charts, and animations that help visualize the numbers… more

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

Having found success in video games and a hugely popular Netflix series, The Witcher franchise is now on the hunt for the coin Pokémon GO has earned in location-based augented reality mobile games. Developer Spokko, a subsidiary of CD Projekt Red (the developer behind the console/PC games), has opened up registration for early access to the global “soft launch” of the Android version of The Witcher: Monster Slayer. Don’t Miss: Niantic Previews the Future of AR Gaming with Codename: Urban Legends DemoAt the end of April, Spokko will draw names from registrants to receive early access to the app. Players interested in joining the hunt early can register at the game’s website. Spokko/YouTubeSpokko/YouTubeCurrently, availability for the iOS version is limited to New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Philippines, and Russia via the App Store (no word on a wider rollout). A support page also lists early access for the Android version for New Zealand and Australia, but the Play Store link comes…more