Virtual Reality

If there's one company that is a fan of the TrueDepth camera on Apple's iPhone X devices, it's the popular eyeglasses retailer Warby Parker. Last year, the company introduced the ability to measure customers' faces using the depth-sensing front-facing sensor on the original i ...more

On Friday, at IFA 2018 in Berlin, Samsung invited attendees into the residence of Family Guy's Griffin family to learn all about its "smart home" products via augmented reality. "If Peter Griffin can have a smart home, then everyone can," said Samsung via its webpage for the ...more

Last week, Magic Leap gave us an additional peek at its Lumin OS and more tutorials that show how its device works with virtual content. But details about the hardware wasn't included in the array of new information. Now, thanks to a developer with a keen eye for source code, ...more

Among a treasure trove of new developer information on the Lumin OS that Magic Leap recently published on its Creator Portal appears to be the official confirmation of the Magic Leap Mobile Companion App. The app was alluded to in job postings previously reported by Next Real ...more

New Balance is helping Liverpool Football Club (FC) fans see how they look in the team's new kits with an augmented reality experience in Snapchat. The Lens uses background segmentation to replace the user's surroundings with a virtual stadium and a full-body mask to place th ...more

Apple's iPhone X now has the power to turn anyone into a Japanese anime character, thanks to a new app that harnesses the device's TrueDepth camera. Created by Tokyo-based ViRD Inc., the Puppemoji app allows you to transcend the confines of Apple's Animoji characters and reco ...more

Despite the wide availability of markerless augmented reality experiences for mobile devices, there is still a market for scanned triggers for content, as evidenced by the new image recognition capabilities on Facebook's Camera AR platform. AR experiences for the movies Ready ...more

Thanks to Apple's beta preview of iOS 11.3 released last week, app developers are already experimenting with the ARKit capabilities that will be available to regular users this spring. The highlight of ARKit 1.5 is vertical surface detection. The first iteration of ARKit was ...more

What do you get a co-worker for Christmas, Hannukah, or Kwanzaa when he or she already has a Meta 2 headset? Last week, Meta Company shared a delightful video of its employees unwrapping virtual Secret Santa gifts through the Meta 2. Gifts included a UFO beaming up dreidels, ...more

To commemorate the rollout of the AR+ update for Pokémon Go, Apple CEO Tim Cook took to Twitter to promote and celebrate the moment his company's ARKit platform made possible. "You never know who you'll run into on the Apple campus," Cook tweeted. "The power of ARKit is comin ...more

When it comes to identifying what's fashionable on the runway, including cutting edge tech that bleeds into the mainstream of style, Vogue magazine stands at the top of the list. So it's fitting that the fashion tastemaker has now updated its iOS app with an AR camera effect ...more

Thanks to ARKit, homeowners and apartment dwellers can visualize just about every aspect of their abodes, from furniture and decor with the IKEA Place, Houzz, and Amazon apps to new countertops with Cambria's app and retractable awnings via Markilux. Now, that list of availab ...more

With smartglasses designed for navigating drones and an AR drone racing game to its credit, Epson has just added another credit to its pioneering efforts in the AR-meets-drones space with the launch of a drone simulator app. Developed by Y Media Labs with input from DJI and E ...more

While The Walking Dead has brand recognition for its AR game, ARZombi has ARKit. Their forthcoming app, built on ARKit by an independent team of horror aficionados, is more reminiscent of zombie mode in recent installments of the Call of Duty franchise than AMC's location-bas ...more

It seems like it was just last week that AMC and Next Games unveiled their location-based zombie game based on hit TV series The Walking Dead. (Wait, actually it was just last week.) But, just like a walker seeking fresh flesh, AMC is back this week with another AR mobile app ...more

If you've ever wanted to hone your paintball skills, without spending a ton of money and making a huge mess, Show Me Virtual and Apple's ARKit have an app for you. The demo was posted on YouTube and shows how you can master paintball through your phone. Your device acts as a ...more

Augmented reality dogs have been a big hit with developers using Apple's ARKit. RoVR hit YouTube a few days ago and people have been clamoring for it ever since. Not to mention the Good Dogs Game created by the people behind the famous We Rate Dogs Twitter. It seems everyone ...more

This is one of the coolest applications of Apple's ARKit that we've seen so far. The 3D software product studio gradientspace has created a Minecraft 3D scanner using ARKit. The scanner lets you Minecraft your real world. While it's unclear exactly how the application works, ...more

With products and solutions offered by the likes of Scope AR, Trimble, DAQRI, VIATechnik, and others, augmented reality is becoming a hot commodity for improving productivity while maintaining safety in the construction and manufacturing industries. Another example of AR in t ...more

In the past, to see a pre-constructed state of the house that you would one day live in, you had to be able to read blueprints or hire an artist to sketch it out. Later came the ability to have a 3D rendering of that house on a screen, but you'd still have to work hard to envi ...more

Data visualization has many applications in virtual and mixed reality, since a third dimension literally adds important depth to the represented information. A new app called HoloFlight is a good example of this, combining flight-tracking data and the Microsoft HoloLens to sur ...more

If you've ever made graphs and charts, you know it can be a struggle to represent a large amount of data. It's something that just doesn't work very well on a flat surface. In virtual and mixed reality, however, the data can exist all around you. In the below, futurist Jim Re ...more

While the early stages of any new technology always seems amazing because of the utilitarian, almost altruistic software concepts it inspires, mixed and augmented reality will still see its fair share of corporate apps. That might be a good thing, however, as Volvo's plan goes ...more

Spending time in a holographic environment brings the virtual world to life, but it doesn't actually create much interaction with your physical environment. So Daenet created a concept app called HoloTwin to demonstrate how holograms and real-world devices can interact with on ...more

A pair of properties from the soon-to-merge Warner Media and Discovery companies chose different platforms for their augmented reality marketing, with Warner film Space Jam: A New Legacy opting to go with Facebook and Discovery Channel publishing an AR experience through Snapc ...more

While Apple and Samsung have started integrating depth sensors into the iPad Pro and Galaxy smartphones, more advanced AR experiences are arriving for standard smartphone cameras on Android devices. Earlier this month, Niantic began rolling out updates for Pokémon GO that add ...more

Magic Leap's legal battle against Nreal has taken an intriguing turn this week, as Magic Leap set a date to discuss the matter with Nreal. But a new partnership struck by Nreal adds another wrinkle to the duel between the two AR wearable makers. Meanwhile, Magic Leap, YouTube ...more

This week, the recurring theme in augmented reality can be summed up fairly succinctly: content is king. For Magic Leap, content comes in the form of the delivery of the Madefire immersive comics app. In the case of Apple, content arrives via a virtual try-on tool from Warby ...more

Why do you need augmented reality? Because enterprise, they say. And while that's certainly true for several disciplines, there's still that mainstream use case hanging out there waiting for users to discover beyond the realm of enterprise and gaming. After much thought — and ...more

Part of the mainstreaming of augmented reality is learning to adopt new habits around the hardware delivering these groundbreaking next-gen interface experiences. And while the top-tier, truly immersive AR devices like the HoloLens are not yet practical for day-long use, what ...more

The last few weeks were fairly busy in the realm of augmented reality and remote meetings developments. Most of that activity was generated by some mammoth announcements from Snap and its Spectacles AR smartglasses, and Google, with its Project Starline experimental holographi ...more

Snap introduced some fantastic new augmented reality abilities in version 3.4 of Lens Studio, the company's tool that allows anyone to create AR lenses for the Snapchat app. The newest features include improved hand tracking and full-body segmentation. The Lens Studio communi ...more

Snapchat and its augmented reality capabilities have become a haven for music artists seeking to promote their new albums or simply amplify their art with immersive experiences. We've seen the likes of Drake, Nicki Minaj, and Ariana Grande publish Snapchat Lenses to push thei ...more

As augmented reality space continues to move into the mainstream, the competition to offer immersive services is ramping up as well. One of the companies leading the charge to help brands and individuals offer and experience AR via mobile devices is Toronto-based NexTech AR. ...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 ...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

The Animal Crossing series has been a big hit for Nintendo, so in a bid to enhance the experience even more for users, the game is getting the augmented reality treatment. The latest update for Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp adds two new features for iOS and Android smartphone ...more

While much of the world is currently in some form of quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic, augmented reality (AR) gives us all the opportunity to see virtual content while stuck in our homes. In addition to installing mobile AR apps or playing with camera effects on Facebo ...more

Though Microsoft has had trouble keeping up with the demand for HoloLens 2, the company has been able to supply modified headsets to the US Army. Now, newly revealed images from the US Army show exactly how the HoloLens 2 is being used during training exercises as the militar ...more

The sky is the limit when it comes to augmented reality, but Snapchat's latest innovation is keeping its AR platform grounded. On Thursday, the company published a pair of new Lenses that highlight its new ground transformation technology. Don't Miss: This Viral Instagram Au ...more

Augmented reality already seemed like the ideal technology to advertise for a movie based on the premise of being sucked into a video game world the first time around. For the sequel, how about two times the immersion? After previously working together to create a web-based a ...more

Usually, flying into unknown territory would mean riding into the "danger zone", but Paramount and Snapchat are taking the trip anyway with one of Summer 2020's most anticipated movie sequels. On Monday, Snapchat published a trailer reaction Lens, the first of its kind for th ...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

While "Baby Yoda" from The Mandalorian threatens to overshadow it, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker arrives in theaters next week, which means it's time for Disney and Lucasfilm to ramp up its promotional strategy. And there's little surprise that augmented reality is part of ...more

Friends and family receiving new Portal devices for Christmas will have some extra stocking stuffers in the form of new AR features. On Tuesday, Facebook unleashed a cornucopia of new features and functionality for the video calling device, including new AR content for the St ...more

The HoloLens 2 hasn't even reached most of the market, but it's already a big-time TV star. Microsoft's augmented reality device made its primetime debut on FOX TV last night on an episode of the hospital drama The Resident. Don't Miss: Hands-On with the HoloLens 2, the New ...more

A little over a year after emerging from stealth, augmented reality gaming startup Illumix has launched its first title using a familiar formula, but with a new twist. On Monday, the company, working in partnership with Scott Games, launched Five Nights at Freddy's AR Special ...more

Augmented reality seems to come into its own in museums, where audiences are ready and willing to try out new immersive tech. Now, that tech-powered palette is about to get a little larger. On Wednesday, the Knight Foundation announced grants that will allow five museums nati ...more

Unless you've been totally off the grid, there's a good chance you're aware that the Disney Plus streaming video service launched this week. And, if you're on this site, you're likely salivating over the new Star Wars series, The Mandalorian. But did you know that the service ...more

Dark mode themes for mobile apps are all the rage these days, but YouTube is taking that a bit literally with its latest augmented reality experience. On Monday, to promote the release of Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, which debuts in US theaters on Friday, Disney released a v ...more

The landscape of augmented reality marketing is growing by leaps and bounds nearly every month, with Hollywood and the cosmetics industry leading the way. But increasingly, the alcohol industry is coming up with interesting ways to ply its liquid wares in virtual space, the l ...more

Augmented reality as a storytelling medium can do some extraordinary things words and images alone can't convey -- such as transporting readers 400 years into the past. On Thursday, to recognize the 400 year anniversary of the first African slaves arriving in North America, U ...more

Increasingly, cutting-edge platforms like blockchain technology and augmented reality are overlapping, forging new digital frontiers that promise to change the way we interact with the virtual and the real world. The latest effort in this area features blockchain startup WAX, ...more

The augmented reality cloud will probably be one of the most important pieces of digital real estate in the next few years, and China has no intention of being left out of the virtual land grab. During Huawei's Developer Conference this weekend, the company took the wraps off ...more

We already know that major players like Magic Leap have been planting the seeds of augmented reality for mainstream consumers through wireless partnerships with AT&T, NTT Docomo, SK Telecom. But now, one of India's leading telecom companies has joined forces with a much lesse ...more

With the third season of Netflix's hit series Stranger Things set to debut July 4, it's time to crank up the hype machine, this time, in augmented reality. For its latest promotion, Netflix has summoned the AR powers of Snapchat to bring "the upside down," the alternate dimen ...more

For those about to rock, Live Nation salutes you, now with augmented reality. This week, at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival of Creativity in France, the live entertainment giant unveiled a suite of AR experiences that music festivals and their sponsors will be able to d ...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

The long and somewhat tumultuous journey of Leap Motion has come to an end, thanks to another startup. While most of the augmented reality industry was knee-deep in technical discussions about the future AR and new product reveals, Ultrahaptics quietly acquired Leap Motion on ...more

On Monday, the Microsoft Build conference kicked off, showcasing a series of demos that went off without a hitch — except for one big one. At the start of the show, the company was meant to show off the capabilities of the HoloLens 2 by highlighting a look at the historic Apo ...more