Category: Uncategorized

The year is still off to a roaring start, with augmented reality at the center of nearly everything, from enterprise solutions, to entertainment, to safety. In the realm of streaming, the Marvel universe got another dose of augmented reality marketing help thanks to Disney Plus. On the startup founder front, one CEO is battling Covid-19 by helping to make sure AR headsets are virus-free, while another startup founder just secured a new patent that could prove contentious in coming years. Finally, Microsoft took the wraps off the next phase of its AR and VR strategy, which is still primarily… more

The process of trying out new augmented reality and virtual reality hardware is as personal as it gets. Bottom line, if you can’t directly try these immersive devices on, it’s difficult to really understand the benefits they can bring to your life and work. That’s why the Covid-19 pandemic has presented a particularly tricky challenge to the many AR/VR hardware makers around the world looking to mainstream their products in a new world in which nearly everyone has, understandably, become a bit of germaphobe. • Don’t Miss: Microsoft Debuts HoloLens 2 Industrial Edition for Pharmaceutical… more

Among the various components of the emerging augmented reality space, the most lucrative is the advertising market. The prospect of turning every object, every location, ever signpost in the real world into a discount code or virtual transaction interface is why AR will ultimately be more profitable than VR. But as the foundations of this new era are being laid, some are rushing to secure their space via technological and legal means. The latest is Seek, a Utah-based company that recently secured an AR patent that could fundamentally impact hundreds of companies in the years to come. • Don’t… more

In response to Apple’s implementation of LiDAR sensors in iPad Pro and iPhone 12 Pro models, Google is looking to leverage the dual-camera setups in recent flagship devices as depth-sensing components. In recent updates to Google’s ARCore, as well as the app that installs the AR toolkit on compatible Android devices, the company quietly added mentions of support for “dual camera stereo depth.” Don’t Miss: Google Brings Persistent Content Support to Cloud Anchors, Expands Augmented Faces to iOS The first devices to support this new capability will be the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4XL, which carry a… more

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the demand for virtual and remote collaboration, and Microsoft has a solution that may serve as the catalyst for more such apps for augmented and virtual reality in the near future. During the keynote for the company’s virtual Ignite event on Tuesday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and technical fellow Alex Kipman unveiled Microsoft Mesh, a mixed reality platform that leverages the Azure cloud platform to facilitate shared collaborative experiences between remote participants via HoloLens 2 and other devices. Don’t Miss: 10 Remote Collaboration Apps for… more

The new WandaVision series is perhaps the hottest TV show on the Disney Plus streaming service since…well, its own The Mandalorian wrapped up its second season late last year. Now, after publishing AR experiences in partnership with Google to promote the latter, Disney has tapped the AR camera effects of Facebook Messenger to hype up the former as the season (and, perhaps, series) finale is set to drop on Friday. Don’t Miss: The Best Marvel Movie Scenes Featuring Augmented Reality Concepts That We Might Use in the Near Future The newly Marvel-powered app is available in the camera effects… more

The Lens Studio creators have published more than 1.5 million AR effects to Snapchat. One of them is Audrey Spencer, who shared her story with us and provided her insights into Lens Studio as a storytelling device. Meanwhile, Snap has added new capabilities to the platform to stoke more creativity from its creators. In AR wearables, Samsung, perhaps prematurely and maybe accidentally, illustrated its vision for smartglasses and spatial computing via leaked concept videos. At Mobile World Congress Shanghai, tech giant Qualcomm and one of its hardware partners, Nreal, each revealed new AR… more

The rapid advance of Lens Studio as a platform for easily developing augmented reality experiences is just one indicator that immersive computing is becoming the norm. But one layer above the technology tools are the users, the real stars of any platform. Without passionate users, your platform is really just a great idea without the footprint of real-world usage and momentum. That’s part of why we decided to begin looking closer at some of the people who are driving the most mainstream version of AR forward via mobile apps. • Don’t Miss: Bernie Sanders Presidential Inauguration Freezing… more

The Lens Studio app has become a cornerstone of Snap and its augmented reality technology portfolio by giving developers, creatives, and novices the ability to create augmented reality camera effects for Snapchat. One reason for this is Snap’s steady and frequent iteration of the platform’s capabilities, and the latest round looks to greatly expand what the Lens Studio community can do with the tool. Don’t Miss: Snapchat Spooky AR Experiences from Lens Studio Creators Get You Ready for Halloween On Thursday, Snap released Lens Studio 3.4, which adds improved hand tracking, full-body… more

San Francisco-based augmented reality company Scope AR has made building AR instructional content for mobile devices and AR wearables as easy as throwing together a PowerPoint deck, primarily via its WorkLink platform. For its next trick, ScopeAR has packaged its platform into a browser window. Don’t Miss: 15 Remote Assistance Apps Driving the Enterprise Sector of Augmented Reality, from HoloLens to iPhone On Wednesday, the company launched WorkLink Create, a web-based application that, like the original WorkLink, enables users without coding or 3D modeling experience to create AR workflows… more