Ar Wars

When it comes to mass adoption, augmented reality is still primarily a mobile world, so Google is pitching its own ARCore flavor of mobile AR to the education and marketing segments. On Tuesday, at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference in Chi ...more

Regal Cinema's augmented reality magazine Moviebill enjoyed a big debut in April and it has its sights set on an even bigger (virtually) outing with its next edition. Arriving in Regal theaters on June 22, the second issue of the publication will feature Jurassic World: Falle ...more

While mobile gaming, in the 10 years since the App Store launched, has matured to console-level quality, premium augmented reality games built with ARKit (or ARCore) have been scarce. Immersive VR is looking to do its part reduce that deficit with the launch of The Ancients A ...more

For years, Magic Leap has promised to deliver stunning augmented reality experiences that will outperform any other competitor, and a newly revealed partnership hints that the company may be able to deliver on those promises. Framestore, the Oscar-winning studio behind many o ...more

After Vuzix's scorching hot week at CES, the future of AR is so bright, we have to wear (smart) shades. Luckily, Vuzix is making it easier for consumers to grab a pair. To address the apparent new interest in company's Amazon Alexa-equipped Blade smartglasses, the company has ...more

The knee-jerk reactions to Magic Leap's long-awaited augmented reality device, the Magic Leap One: Creator Edition, range from pent-up joy to side-eyed skepticism. That's what happens when you launch the hype train several years before even delivering even a tiny peek at the p ...more

Most of the animated characters and animals we've seen in augmented reality are still fairly basic in terms of visual fidelity. And because many are still impressed by simply seeing 3D figures properly scaled and tracked alongside real-world objects, this approach has worked . ...more

On May 25th, 1977 a small movie with a $13,000,000 budget came out. At the time, the executives involved had no faith that this film would make any money. To the surprise of many in the industry, not only did that film set records, it led to a number of other movies, video gam ...more

One Instagram creator's augmented reality homage to Disney's deep bench of animated characters has earned him fifteen minutes of fame. Taking a page from the enchanted book attraction at the Sorcerer's Workshop of Disney California Adventure, content creator Arno Partissimo p ...more

Thanks to the expanding universe of augmented reality tools being made available, increasingly, anybody can liven up sleepy office meetings with immersive computing. Now, a new 3D presentation-sharing service for the Magic Leap One has PowerPoint is in its crosshairs (someone ...more

It might sound odd to call interior decorating exciting, especially if you're not a professional within that industry. But that's exactly what it is when combined with augmented reality. I recently found out just how fun it can be when I downloaded the new Sotheby's Curate ap ...more

Until Star Wars-style 3D hologram projection technology becomes commonplace, the near future of certain kinds of remote work is in robotics. Now, a new dynamic is using augmented reality to give this kind of telepresence a kind of superpower. This week, Double Robotics unveil ...more

The release of Avatar Chat for Magic Leap One and Spatial for HoloLens during the fourth quarter of 2018 appeared to revolutionize video calling via augmented reality. But a new startup called Mimesys, which is showing off its software at CES this week in Las Vegas, has upped ...more

Google's ARCore has expanded its support to include the Galaxy S9 and S9+, which means you get access to all the cool new apps that can sense the world around them. But one of ARCore's coolest uses so far is still Pixel-exclusive: AR stickers built right into the Google Camera ...more

Clearly, the next big battlefield for tech gamesmanship between Apple and Google will be augmented reality. While the announcement of the new iPhones by Apple may have underwhelmed in the AR department, they did highlight their new ARCore platform and Core ML image recognitio ...more

On this platform, we talk a lot about the future of augmented reality, and we pay attention to what is being said elsewhere as well. Sometimes the future chatter is about the hardware. Even more frequently, in recent months, the discussion is about the future of the AR cloud, ...more

Amid the coronavirus chaos, two companies at the forefront of augmented reality technology took starkly different approaches to their upcoming developers conferences, as Facebook has canceled its annual F8 conference and Magic Leap plans to invite a limited number of attendees ...more

We're a few weeks away from the fireworks associated with New Year's celebrations, but that doesn't mean you can't start a little early — in augmented reality. The team at Weta Workshop, recently released a small immersive game called Boosters that they created for a little o ...more

After opening up its Spark AR platform on Instagram for all creators, Facebook is already expanding the platform's capabilities on its Snapchat killer. On Monday, the company released version 76 of Spark AR Studio, which brings support for two new AR effect options for develo ...more

Some people believe that art makes artists immortal, and now one of the best known performance artists on the planet is working on taking that immortality into the realm of augmented reality. Marina Abramovic is using volumetric capture technology, along with the Magic Leap O ...more

Suddenly, Magic Leap's lawsuit against Nreal, as well as its barrier to entry in the Chinese market, appears to be as insurmountable as The Great Wall itself. On Friday, Nreal revealed that it is partnering with China Unicom, China's fifth-largest wireless provider, to bring ...more

Augmented reality plays a key role in the evolution of adjacent technologies, such as 5G connectivity and brain-control interfaces (BCI), and the business news of the week serves up proof points for both examples. On the 5G front, Verizon's acquisition of Jaunt XR adds anothe ...more

As excitement looms for Apple's annual parade of pomp and circumstance for its latest lineup of iPhones, some hidden hints in an internal build of iOS 13 has Apple enthusiasts salivating for what Cupertino is testing in the AR wearables realm. While Apple has yet to even conf ...more

The streaming content vision from Magic Leap recently underwent a quiet but major update, courtesy of AT&T. Previously, Magic Leap's retail and 5G partner AT&T made its DirecTV Now streaming television service available to Magic Leap One users. But now that the company has la ...more

If online retail is war (and who says it isn't), then CGTrader is prepared to arm its allies with augmented reality ammunition. On Wednesday, at the Augmented World Expo (AWE) in Santa Clara, California, the 3D content provider unveiled ARsenal, an e-commerce software tool th ...more

Google's has expanded ARCore support to numerous Android flagships like the Galaxy S10, so if you have a compatible device, you get access to all the cool new apps that can augment the world around you. One of ARCore's most sought-after features, AR Stickers, is normally exclu ...more

Ten days after Magic Leap declared that it had selected the winners of its Independent Creators Program, the company has officially released an almost full list of grant recipients. For its first round of grants, the company filtered its submission pool of more than 6,500 app ...more

After years of waiting, Microsoft has finally updated its industry-leading augmented reality device, the HoloLens. During a pre-show event at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, HoloLens inventor Alex Kipman, along with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Julia White, ...more

Hollywood has already proven that it's on board with augmented reality, with examples ranging from Avengers: Infinity War to Ralph Breaks the Internet. But one startup wants to make the augmented reality content that's being used to promote TV and film entertainment smarter. ...more

In this week of Snapchat lenses, there was a significant increase in ones that involve Marvel superheroes (the Infinity War effect), as well as ones with YouTubers. Classic sitcoms will also always do well, as evidenced by some of my previous roundups. Overall, lenses are doin ...more

During the unveiling of its content partnership with the NBA, Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz, with an assist from former player/current pitchman Shaquille O'Neal, described at least one of the ways fans would be able to experience sports using the augmented reality device. What ...more

With the Super Bowl just days away, it seems appropriate to draw parallels between football and the professional sport of technology business, or, more specifically, the augmented reality segment. Like the Patriots and Eagles, businesses have to deal with the media, as Apple ...more

Coming into this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the common sentiment among observers was that this was expected to be the big year for augmented reality. But as the biggest tech conference of the year draws to a close, the reality is that 2018 seems more likely to be ...more

Innovation Congress starts tomorrow, but its creator, Jason Keath, spoke to Next Reality today about the future of augmented reality. Innovation Congress is an event meant to discuss strategies for businesses to stay competitive in the future, with technology trends shifting ...more

The mission to rise above the fray to become a leading player in the augmented reality business is a moving target that depends on innovation, resources, and timing. Last week, Campfire took advantage of these remote-centric times to introduce a new AR product to the market t ...more

The emergence of Microsoft's HoloLens 2 as a cutting-edge US Army tool has focused a spotlight on the marriage between augmented reality and the military. Now a new startup is leveraging that interest in a different way by harnessing AR technology to assist the US Air Force, ...more

The results of Microsoft's $480 million contract with the US Army are on display and users continue to test the suped-up version of the HoloLens 2. Also, the enterprise segment of the AR industry continues to look attractive to investors, as startup Talespin has raised a new ...more

This week, the beginning of an epic legal battle was set to begin between augmented reality players Magic Leap and Nreal, the small China-based startup accused by the former of stealing trade secrets. However, a new wrinkle has emerged in the legal skirmish that could change ...more

This week's Magic Leap Lumin OS update contained a number of goodies, including iris authentication, and a way to stream to Twitch from the device. But one new feature really stood out to me, and that's voice control of the system's interface. Don't Miss: Magic Leap Used to ...more

Developers and enterprise customers chomping at the bit to get their hands on HoloLens 2 may not have to wait much longer, as Microsoft passed one of the remaining hurdles needed to release their new tech into the wild. But Microsoft isn't the only tech giant with new augment ...more

In the technology space, there are certain brands you grow to depend on. Whether it's due to a long, multi-decade track record of success, or new innovations that blow you away, some tech names accrue a rare kind of brand equity with users that's difficult to earn. That's why ...more

Over the past two years, the tech industry has formed a series of symbiotic relationships that are now converging in the augmented reality space. This week, we took a look at these interrelated technologies and how they are shaping the future of AR. Meanwhile, Marvel and HBO ...more

The hype around augmented reality has risen to a fever pitch over the past two years, and if this week's selection of business news stories are any indication, the din is about to get down right deafening. That's because the Microsoft's follow-up to the original HoloLens is a ...more

Augmented reality startup Nreal was a hit at this month's CES event, with some even calling the device a worthy challenger to the Magic Leap One. However, the company's path to success in the US may not be as smooth as it first seemed, as gaming giant Epic Games has lodged a ...more

All of the the tech industry giants, including Apple, Facebook, and Google, are working on new smartglasses and/or AR headsets, but this week, Google took a major step forward with gesture recognition technology that could make its way into AR wearables, posing a threat to Lea ...more

While Magic Leap has gained attention for its ability to raise capital, the company (now with an actual product on the market) still faces an uphill climb against the titans of the industry. Namely, there's the looming presence of Apple, who 18 months ago didn't even have an ...more

Over the past three years, Epic Games has raised billions of dollars in funding on the success of Fortnite as well as Unreal Engine, one of the top 3D engines available for developing games and AR experiences. But, with its latest massive funding round, it has its eyes set on ...more

Even the biggest fan of Mario Kart may have reservations about traveling to Super Nintendo World in Japan in the middle of a worldwide pandemic to experience the augmented reality-enhanced roller coaster ride that recreates the game in real life. Luckily, video of the entire ...more

In recent weeks, Google managed to capitalize on the hype surrounding the Star Wars streaming series The Mandalorian with an AR app that was not only exclusive to Android but also available only for 5G-equipped devices. Now, Google has partnered with Red Bull to launch an AR ...more

The movie theater business is hurting due to the pandemic, but that hurdle is actually the perfect set of circumstances for movie studios to lean hard into augmented reality marketing. That's what's on the menu this week as Dreamworks teamed with Snapchat to launch a special ...more

The words of three of tech's most important executives in the last 48 hours are providing some valuable insight into the near term future of augmented reality and the cloud infrastructures that support it. Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Snap CEO Evan Spiege ...more

Back when I worked in the music industry, I never imagined there would be a day that I'd be able to sit in a room surrounded by virtual album covers while listening to beats, but that day is really here. However, while Spotify's collaboration with Magic Leap is a welcome bit ...more

The week of the annual Consumer Electronics Show is supposed to be filled with good news for the augmented reality industry as AR headset and smartglasses makers show off their new wares. Alas, as CES wrapped this week, a dark cloud hung over the AR hardware fraternity. We le ...more

In our review of Amazon's non-augmented reality Echo Frames smartglasses, we made the case for audio virtual assistants being the linchpin for AR wearables. Given that premise, it's now vital to pay attention to developments in the spatial audio space, the latest of which com ...more

People fundamentally distrust magicians. And they should. The illusions they proffer are just that, illusions meant to astound rather than tangible interactions and results that have weight and meaning in our real world. Our lizard brains know this, and, no matter what the out ...more

The beginning of autumn has delivered a number of new augmented reality developments, and we're on top of it. This week, NASA launched several major new initiatives that involve AR as an essential piece of the puzzle. Also, Magic Leap's history turned a major new corner, whil ...more

The competition to secure the top slot in the smartglasses space is now in full swing, with Facebook challenging Snap's Spectacles and Amazon's Echo Frames with its own collaboration with Ray-Ban called Stories. What makes Facebook's offering so unique is that it is the first ...more

Facebook promised that it would release a pair of smartglasses in partnership with Ray-Ban sometime this year and now it looks like we have our first look at the device. The design is amazingly in line with Ray-Ban's classic look, so much so that if you wore a pair of these i ...more

The initiative known as Project Aria has been the focus of curiosity around Facebook's augmented reality plans ever since Mark Zuckerberg revealed the device around this time last year. Now more details about the device have emerged to flesh out more about how it works. • Do ...more

The Chinese short-form social media giant known as TikTok is getting into an increasingly crowded and competitive space: augmented reality effects tools. Hints that the company is engaged in the effort first surfaced about a week ago. The new platform is called TikTok Effect ...more