Magic and How to Do It

A company whose sole product line is smartphones might be worried about early proclamations that the smartphone is dead with the advent of augmented reality wearables. So it isn't too surprising that smartphone maker Vivo has produced its own take on consumer-grade smartglass ...more

Because timing is everything, the latest entry in the location-based augmented reality gaming sweepstakes, Ghostbusters World, has arrived just in time for Halloween. Launched Monday on the App Store and the Google Play Store, Ghostbusters World shares its perfect timing with ...more

Scope AR has decided to take its live remote assistance enterprise application, Remote AR, further into the mobile augmented reality realm by harnessing the powers of Google's recently released ARCore. While previously supporting devices like the HoloLens, ODG R7, as well as ...more

Automotive augmented reality company WayRay has set its destination for a $1 billion valuation with an estimated time of arrival of 2019, and it has just passed a major milestone towards that goal. On Tuesday, the company announced that it has closed an $80 million Series C r ...more

On Sunday, the annual Grammy Awards delivered its usual mix of fashion, live performances, and music industry magic, but this time with one important difference: Animojis. During the broadcast, two iPhone X commercials ran that showed off how TrueDepth camera, in combination ...more

This time last year, we got our first taste of what mobile app developers could do in augmented reality with Apple's ARKit. Most people had never heard of Animojis. Google's AR platform was still Tango. Snapchat introduced its World Lens AR experiences. Most mobile AR experien ...more

Bioluminescence — the ability of an organism to produce and emit light — is nature's light show. Plants, insects, fish, and bacteria do it, and scientists understand how. Until now, though, we didn't know how fungi glow. Now, thanks to research led by Zinaida Kaskova in the I ...more

Are you looking for a little microbe magic? Think composting. Composting is a great way to reuse food and plant waste that you would otherwise throw into the trash, which would just end up in a landfill somewhere. During the composting cycle, microbes reduce this organic wast ...more

As one of the leading 3D engines for augmented reality development, a new release of Unity is a significant event that carries the potential to facilitate huge leaps forward in AR content creation. Unity version 2019.1, arriving about a month ahead of the 2018 edition, makes ...more

If you're a Harry Potter fan who has ever wanted to have your own Hogwarts adventure, you're in luck — Jam City is close to releasing "Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery," a mobile game that allows you to attend the magical school yourself. In fact, it's so close you can pre-regis ...more

Take the best RPG of all time. Combine with the only instrument with invisible strings. And you have pure elf-worthy magic! This incredible viral video shows Randy George, a concert thereminist from Los Angeles, playing the legendary theme from the video game Zelda. It looks ...more

While holographic Whitney Houston is hitting the road, a new mobile app is bringing volumetric captures of up and coming performers directly to the iPhones and iPads of fans. On Wednesday, AR studio 1RIC launched Jadu, a video app that delivers virtual performances by music a ...more

The world of CES, the annual technology conference in Las Vegas, usually brings a few surprises, but few expected Samsung to fire off its first real augmented reality salvo at the event. But that's exactly what the South Korean company did late Monday when it unveiled a proto ...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

For developers and makers getting started with augmented reality, Intel is lowering the barrier to entry for its RealSense line of sensors. On Tuesday, Intel revealed the RealSense SR305, a short-range depth sensor available for pre-order at just $79. Don't Miss: Mimesys Bri ...more

Super Ventures has published "The AR Landscape," a chart encompassing the major players and startups that are shaping augmented reality. Launched in February as the first incubator and fund focused on augmented reality, Super Ventures outlines companies working augmented reali ...more

In a world full of augmented reality camera effects apps, one app is going in a more social direction. On Tuesday, a rebooted version of Octi (which first debuted in 2018) dropped on the Apple App Store. Now, instead of merely adding AR effects to photos and videos, the app u ...more

After drawing attention from nostalgic Gen Xers for its Motorola Razr reboot with a foldable screen, Lenovo has a new augmented reality smartglasses concept that the company hopes will also turn some heads. At its Tech World 2019 conference in Beijing, Lenovo showed off its L ...more

What happens when a entrepeneur/theme park creator and special effects artist/magician team up? You get a team crazy enough to create the first true virtual reality theme park (sorry, Six Flags). They only have a single experience so far, but it's already taken a giant leap be ...more

One of the most popular sports shows on television, Inside the NBA on TNT, gave viewers a tech-powered treat on Tuesday night by dropping them into a broadcast version of augmented reality. During the show's "Gone Fishin'" segment, which is dedicated to teams eliminated from ...more

Mobile app publishers are using augmented reality to solve everyday measurement problems from measuring the length or height of items to previewing furniture in the home. Now, it looks like checking luggage dimensions for carry-on eligibility is another volumetric problem inc ...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

While the mainstream consumer market waits for cool augmented glasses to arrive from Magic Leap, or maybe even Snap Inc. (Spectacles 2.0??), AR headset maker DAQRI and its business customers are finding new, money-saving and time-saving use cases for the technology today. A r ...more

Best known for its mobile phones and television sets, South Korea's LG has had a quieter presence in the US compared to the country's homegrown efforts. Now, the company is leveling up its augmented reality capabilities with 3D advertisements that spring from home televisions ...more

BANSHIE n pl. -S banshee 62 points (12 points without the bingo) The BANSHIE (or BANSHEE) is a female spirit from Gaelic folklore that wails unbearably loud as PRESAGE for someone's imminent death. Irish legend states her as being a fairy woman and messenger of death from th ...more

Perhaps the most important decoration of the holiday season is the Christmas tree. It's where all of the magic happens. If you're not into real Christmas trees, there's always some festive alternatives, but for those of us who can't live without a natural Christmas tree, choos ...more

Smartphone gaming continues to improve with ever sharper displays and raw processing power to deliver console-quality graphics right in the palm of your hands. Nonetheless, you still stand to improve the gaming experience on any phone by adding the right accessories to the mix ...more

After years of testing and modifications, the US Army is moving forward with its customized version of HoloLens 2 from Microsoft. In separate announcements published on Wednesday, the US Army authorized moving from rapid prototyping to production and rapid field testing. Don ...more

Music producer Mark Ronson, fresh off his Oscar win for Best Original Song as a co-writer of "Shallow," the song by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper for the movie A Star Is Born, has now added augmented reality to his varied repertoire. On Wednesday, Ronson and Sony Music release ...more

Influencers of augmented reality demonstrate expertise in their fields and outline a strong vision for the future that they evangelize to others. They help define the direction of the industry and identify others who foster and create innovation in the field. The idea of the ...more

Until Star Wars Jedi Challenges arrives in November, a forthcoming ARKit revision of HoloGrid: Monster Battle from Tippett Studios and Happy Giant, might be the closest most Star Wars fans can get to playing the HoloChess game from the movie. While it lacks the official Star ...more

Augmented reality gaming pioneer and Pokémon GO mastermind Niantic is putting the pieces on the gameboard to prepare developers and gamers for the launch of its AR cloud platform. Announced in June 2018, the Niantic Real World Platform would enable multiplayer experiences, pe ...more

Smartglasses from Apple have become the holy grail of augmented reality, and 2020 has been the rumored time horizon for the product's arrival for the past two years. The latest analyst report sheds more light on its potential debut next year. In the present day, though, Sony ...more

GRAMARYE n pl. -S occult learning; magic 64 points (14 points without the bingo) Simply put, GRAMARYE is MAGIC, SORCERY, and in some cases, NECROMANCY. But overall, there is very little distinction between the terms. Magic is best described as an OCCULT art that can manipula ...more

Maglev trains. Why are they so cool? Well, for starters, they float. The idea of levitating trains have been around since the '60's.  The first commercially available levitator was introduce in 1984, Birmingham, England. The fastest known floating train is Japan's JR-Maglev, ...more