Trademarks

The sweet aroma of cooked fruit filling your kitchen is one of the trademark scents of summer. Yet attaining the perfect consistency for homemade jam can be difficult to master. Often it ends up a watery mess or over-solidifies into thick mystery goo that is destined for the t ...more

In case you thought the long and unfortunate story of ODG was over, hold on, there's one last chapter to tell. As we reported in January, ODG's remaining patent assets were put up for auction, but the buyer was never revealed. However, we now have a pretty good idea of where ...more

I was raised in the glory days of Japanese RPG's (JRPG's) on the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo. Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest were the biggest game franchises, and real gamers could debate their merits endlessly. We remained engaged in the stories of the games, even though ...more

It's no secret that Apple has retail stores in China, along with a large amount of Premium and Authorized Resellers. But a recent post by blogger BirdAbroad has caused quite a commotion in the world of all things Apple, claiming that in her home city of Kunming, there is anoth ...more

OnePlus will be releasing a new phone in the second half of 2018, specifically, an upgrade to their T-series. Over the past two years, #T versions have come out about five months after their predecessors and have included small updates that fix any problems from the previous O ...more

Smartphones are now indispensable when traveling. Domestic and overseas travel alike require food, navigation, translation, and so much more to make work or vacation successful. Gone are the days of lugging multiple tourist books around with you everywhere you go — you need to ...more

In the latest example of life imitating art, IBM has applied for a patent for a video censoring system that looks a lot like the "Arkangel" child monitoring system from the latest collection of modern sci-fi fables from Black Mirror on Netflix. For those who haven't seen the ...more

A major obstacle to the mainstream acceptance of smartglasses is the current inability able to smoosh processors, sensors, and batteries into a pair of frames that look cool. Wearables maker Thalmic is hinting that it may have figured it all out. North is Thalmic's consumer s ...more

QI and ZA. QI n pl. -S the vital force that in Chinese thought is inherent in all things ZA n pl. -S a pizza For over a decade, these words have been used in SCRABBLE play, but not in the US or Canada. It wasn't until their addition in the Official SCRABBLE Players Dictionar ...more

While everyone was marveling at the latest drama over at Magic Leap involving employees last week, a major rumor listed in one of the reports, related to the company's flagship device, was mostly overlooked. "One current issue with the headset is battery life and charging; th ...more

We've experienced the HoloLens, learned a lot about the Meta 2, but almost nobody knows exactly what to expect out of Magic Leap's mixed reality headset. Thanks to a patent dug up by Quartz (which we saw first on Tech Insider), we now might have a better idea. Take a look: If ...more

The rise and fall of Meta, the Silicon Valley-based augmented reality startup that looked to challenge the likes of Microsoft's HoloLens, and others, took just six years. Now, as the story of the company draws to a close, we finally have some deeper insight into what exactly ...more

Based on its continued research, it appears Microsoft recognizes that the next HoloLens needs a wider field of view (FoV). Based on a recently-revealed documentation, the company's research team has found another way to accomplish that objective. A patent application filed wi ...more

The city of London is getting a holiday gift this season, but it's not the kind you unwrap, since it's completely delivered in augmented reality. Snapchat has created an augmented reality version of the famed Big Ben tower clock building that enables Westminster residents and ...more

In June at the eMerge Americas investors conference, Magic Leap founder (and NR50 member) Rony Abovitz proclaimed that the launch of their flagship product was "not far away." Nearly three months later, an eternity in the tech world, and we have not heard an official launch d ...more

Mediocre free Flash game websites are all too common. Many of them thrive off peddling the same few popular games to fans who have slim cause to pick one over the other. They thrive off the indifference of casual gamers and an environment that does not have to stand out to sur ...more

Despite their sometimes fluffy reputations and occasionally ethically compromised viewpoints, tech evangelists are important, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. The right passionate voice behind the right technology platform or piece of hardware can sometimes spell the diffe ...more

MIMESIS n pl. -MESISES or -MESES mimicry MIMETIC adj 61 points (11 points without the bingo) MIMESIS is just another term for MIMICRY in the world of zoology, but it's not just limited to the science of animals, it's used elsewhere as well. But no matter where you use the wo ...more

Magic Leap has reached a major milestone in the lead-up to the launch of its Magic Leap One: Creator Edition by opening access to its developer portal and software development kit (SDK) to all developers. In a Twitter post, the company announced that it has made the "technica ...more

It looks like Snapchat is becoming the MTV of augmented reality. On Thursday, Ariana Grande, with her new album Sweetner, joined Drake and Nicki Minaj and other artists who are pushing new releases through Snapchat's Shoppable AR e-commerce platform. Available in the Snapcha ...more

Apple recently scored a patent (number 9,488,488) to create augmented reality maps, hinting at possible AR integration into the iOS Maps application for iPhone. Does this mean we'll be seeing super visionary projections of places in the app in the near future? Maybe. Apple fi ...more

In its continued pursuit to elevate retail technology, Amazon has been awarded a patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office for a digital mirror that lets customers virtually try on clothes with different backgrounds. According to US Patent No. 9858719 (as originally disc ...more

New documents reveal that electric car company Tesla has filed a surprising new patent that has nothing to do with batteries or autonomous driving and everything to do with augmented reality. Last week, the company's US Patent and Trademark Office patent application, titled " ...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

Here at NextReality, we talk a lot about the many different ways of controlling holograms in the HoloLens and other augmented and mixed reality devices; New and creative ways are coming more and more every day. Most recently is something called the HoloSuit. In the 25-second c ...more

Pretty impressive, as far as LEGO portraiture goes. Via The Telegraph: "Justin Ramsden used more than 3,000 Lego bricks to make the model, which features the singer's trademark beehive hairstyle and a cigarette dangling from her lips. The 19-year-old, who is a member of the ...more

The practice of using sound to trigger augmented reality interactions hasn't been widely used, but a new experience is so impressive that it could kick off more use of the dynamic. In a new promotion for the upcoming film Candyman, Universal Pictures has launched a web-based ...more

Microsoft has the HoloLens and Google has their money on Magic Leap (as well as their own Tango and Cardboard, among others), but we've heard next to nothing about how Apple plans to enter the virtual/augmented/mixed reality space. A new patent offers some clues. Apple could ...more

Magic Leap's recent flurry of patent applications prompted us to look around for any trademark movements from the company, and it turns out that the Florida-based company has been quite busy. In fact, a number of recent trademark filing updates indicate strong interest in sev ...more

If you thought Google was sitting on the sidelines of the growing race toward mainstreaming augmented reality, think again. A patent published by the US Patent and Trademark Office last week may have given the world a sneak peek at the AR headset reportedly under development ...more

The business of enabling the development of augmented reality experiences appears to be as lucrative as AR app development itself. Apple is already reaping the rewards for its own AR toolkit, with more than 13 million installs of ARKit apps in the six months since its launch. ...more

Apple's plans for virtual, mixed, and augmented reality have remained a mystery for some time, but now we at least have some idea of what they're thinking about. UploadVR uncovered a patent showing a VR headset design that looks like a thick pair of sunglasses and utilizes an ...more

Dropping upwards of $60 on a new game can really break the bank, and being a struggling college student leaves me having to decide whether to pick up the latest title or, you know, eat. But often my more primitive urges win out, meaning the only way to enjoy the latest and gre ...more

In the midst of fending off legal challenges from Magic Leap and Epic Games, startup Nreal isn't retreating. Instead, the company is digging in its heels and pushing forward with its launch plan for its Nreal Light smartglasses. On Wednesday, the Beijing-based smartglasses re ...more

With Google taking on the sidewalks with augmented reality walking navigation for Google Maps, Apple has its sights set on the road. In a patent application submitted in Jan. 2019 and published on Thursday by the US Trademark and Patent Office (USPTO), Apple has described a p ...more

Based on newly surfaced information, transparent smartphones like those teased in Iron Man 2 and those hand-tracking monitors made famous in Minority Report may eventually end up being "designed by Apple in California." Among a treasure trove of more than 60 patents awarded t ...more

The landscape of the augmented reality space is broad, diverse, and constantly shifting, perhaps more so than any other vertical in technology. At the same time, major players are attempting to standardize various hardware designs and delivery methods, while still others are r ...more

Christmas came early for Apple, as the company was awarded more than 40 patents by the US Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday, including one covering a system for compositing an augmented reality construct based on image recognition. The patent (US 9,824,495) covers a syst ...more

Nearly a year to the day after the unveiling Magic Leap One, Magic Leap has dropped another update to the Lumin OS that runs the device. Lumin OS version 0.94 is available now as an over-the-air update or via download on the Creator Portal for Magic Leap One users. The bulk ...more

An augmented reality system developed by Lyft might make it less awkward for drivers to figure out who they are supposed to pick up. In a patent application published by the US Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday, Lyft proposes an augmented reality system that helps passe ...more

... Describing the style of John Bonham's drumming instantly conjurs up visions of the thunderous power he created. His contributions to rock music were revolutionary, and his talent unmatch ...more

With its recent acquisition of 3D gaming engine PlayCanvas, Snapchat parent Snap, Inc. appears to be preparing a challenge to the existing players in the world of game development, particularly in terms of augmented and virtual reality gaming. The acquisition appears to have ...more

In a legal brief entered on Monday, Florida-based startup Magic Leap has filed suit against the founder of Nreal, a former employee of Magic Leap, claiming that the company's Nreal Light smartglasses were built using Magic Leap's intellectual property. The documents, which we ...more

A patent application for waveguide-based smart glasses submitted by way of their subsidiary Oculus sheds light on Facebook's plans to escalate their augmented reality efforts. According to the filing submitted to the US Patent and Trademark Office in Feb. 2016, the near-eye d ...more

Last week, Snap powered through a mountain of important software and (shock!) hardware updates, as well as a few very big business partnerships. One of those partnerships is Disney World, but if you weren't paying close attention, you might have missed how exactly you can bri ...more

Samsung trademarked the name Gear 360 a few weeks ago, and today it has been confirmed that the Gear 360 is a spherical virtual reality camera that will accompany the much-anticipated Galaxy S7. Video: . Samsung's Gear 360 will probably look similar to Project Beyond, but with ...more

During its third-quarter earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that "AR is going to change everything." At Amazon, that change occurred in the form of a new tool that could truly democratize AR development. At Apple, that change looks to manifest itself in how future iPhones ...more

Spotify lets you customize some aspects of your experience, whether on the desktop, web, Android, or iOS app. And one of the simplest yet coolest customizations you can perform is changing your playlist cover images. However, it doesn't work on all playlists. Usually, if ther ...more

After entering into settlement talks with Epic Games over the gaming giant's trademark challenge, Nreal is now ready to open up the floodgates to potential early adopters in the augmented reality space. On Thursday, the AR smartglasses maker began taking pre-orders for the Nr ...more

One of the worst-kept secrets in the tech world is Apple's plans for consumer-grade AR smartglasses, still unconfirmed publicly and only recently corroborated through a leaked account of an internal employee meeting. In addition to Apple's AR team, assembled through acquisiti ...more

Snapchat's face tracking has certainly come a long way. This week, we've got an example of one effect that is nearly guaranteed to freak out your friends. Of course, these face-tracking capabilities are available to the Lens Studio community, as evidenced by an augmented real ...more