Augmented Reality News: Page 16

They say if you don't believe, you don't receive. Therefore, I'll choose to believe that this holiday season, Santa's elves have learned how to code in Unity and leverage ARKit to deliver these jolly AR apps for helping children of all ages virtually decorate their homes.

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 ... so far.

Just as the modern travel experience has improved thanks to the internet, Airbnb wants to make your stay in a stranger's home easier by way of augmented and virtual reality.

The same approach to augmented reality that some companies use to improve workforce productivity could also make it easier for car owners to operate and maintain their vehicles.

If you've been paying attention, you already know that ARKit can detect horizontal surfaces and estimate ambient light, but did you know that it can also help you improve your soccer game?

You love augmented reality (that's why you're here!), but some of you also love cryptocurrencies, most popularly known in one of its forms as Bitcoin. So you might be wondering why you can't you find two of your favorite emerging technologies together in one app. Take heart, early adopter — now you can.

From media insiders to the halls of politics, news travels fast on Twitter, making it one of the most powerful social media channels for disseminating or collecting information. Now, for better or for worse, you can immerse yourself in the data firehose of Twitter in augmented reality.

Now, when the weather outside is frightful, Pokémon GO players can expect it to be just as unpleasant in augmented reality.

For those who thought the action in Pokémon Go was a bit too pedestrian, Father.io wants to recruit you for a multi-player, first-person shooter that unfolds on the streets of your own city.

The first teaser for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom just hit computer screens on Sunday, but now plans for an augmented reality book for the film have also emerged.

To create a destination for coffee connoisseurs, Starbucks has ordered up a venti cup of augmented reality to make the visit more interactive.

Lately, any subject in the realm of politics is a figurative powderkeg primed to explode on the nearest social media channel. Now, one app wants to use your iPhone and AR to strike a match.

Next to millennials, one of the groups most coveted by brand marketers is "Generation Z," the consumers of tomorrow who were born between 1996 and 2010. On Monday, Facebook established a beachhead with that demographic in the realm of augmented reality by launching Facebook Messenger Kids.

In the years leading up to the release of the Apple Watch, we were frequently teased with concept designs of what Apple's smartwatch might look like. Of course, many of those outlandish designs were off the mark, but the attention to the idea itself hinted that the public was ready for a mainstream wearable from a high-end hardware maker like Apple. Now smartglasses are getting the same treatment.

With its new Sponsored Lens debuting on Snapchat on Friday, McDonald's is attempting to give potential customers a virtual pick-me-up.

Earlier this week, we told you about the new Star Warsaugmented reality collaboration with Nissan that will bring the famed science-fiction franchise to auto showrooms, and now we can show you what it looks like.

If you've ever wanted to hang out with a flying unicorn that sounds like actor/comedian Patton Oswalt, get ready to get Happy!

It appears that the new AR app from LEGO is inching closer to release.

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."

Thanks to Metaverse, it has never been this easy to create your own AR game.

Introduced along with the iPhone X, Animoji are animated characters, mostly animals, that are rendered from the user's facial expressions using the device's TrueDepth camera system to track the user's facial movements.

The Star Wars saga may have occurred a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, but Nissan is using a futuristic technology to bring stormtroopers and droids into its dealerships.

Two characters from the popular sci-fi animated comedy Rick and Morty have already made their way into augmented reality courtesy of ARKit experiments. Now, it's possible to become one of them on the iPhone X.

Snapchat has broken new ground in its augmented reality advertising efforts, as BMW has opted to show off its new X2 model in AR with the Augmented Trial Lens.

Just days after we found out that Apple is working on its own augmented reality headset, we now learn that the company is accelerating its AR headset efforts with the acquisition of Montreal-based hardware maker Vrvana.

Just in time for the holiday season, Lenovo has released its Mirage AR head-mounted display with the Star Wars: Jedi Challenges game and accessories. Unfortunately, while its price point is a fraction of most other AR headsets, at the moment, it does have a few issues with the setup process.

While most of Hollywood and its celebrity class are enthralled by virtual reality, a new augmented reality experience featuring some of the music and film world's top talent is preparing for virtual liftoff.

If you know your internet history, then you fondly remember the Star Wars Kid and his epic lightsaber display on YouTube. Now, many years later, everyone is following in the footsteps of the Star Wars Kid thanks to the Lenovo Mirage and the new Star Wars: Jedi Challenges app.

Exotic sports cars are the province of the ridiculously wealthy but, thanks to augmented reality, you can now get closer than ever to a Bugatti Chiron.

Considered by many (perhaps unfairly) to be a very public failure, Google Glass can add another plot point to its comeback story, this time as a tool to teach social skills to children and adults with autism.

After years of tantalizing drone video, and then brief glimpses from special guests sharing photos on social media, the Apple Park Visitor Center finally opened to the public on Friday, Nov. 17.

It seems that mobile app developers are constantly coming up with new ideas to apply augmented reality, with Apple's ARKit promising to increase adoption in apps exponentially.

When playing word association with Star Trek, the first thing to come to mind with regards to augmented reality is likely Holodeck, not The Game, an obscure episode from season five of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Now that it has buried the legal hatchet with Meta Company, augmented reality startup Dreamworld has announced plans to open up pre-orders for its Dream Glass AR headset.

Sure, Blippar was first to market with an AR navigation app for iPhones (and iPads) compatible with ARKit, but does it know how to party? Hotstepper does.

Apple CEO Tim Cook told us that augmented reality would change everything, and now we have a better idea of exactly what he meant.

Snapchat's popular AR lenses just got a lot more useful for businesses, as the company has now opened its Context Cards platform to sponsored content.

Facebook's camera platform is the augmented reality vehicle of choice to promote the latest musical effort from Taylor Swift. T-Swift's new album, Reputation, dropped today. To get her fans psyched, an AR effect electrifies the user with virtual lightning, while a snippet from one of her songs plays in the background.

Live theater doesn't typically benefit from the kind of computer-generated special effects that big-budget Hollywood blockbusters deploy, but that could change soon thanks to Microsoft's HoloLens.

This is a very exciting time for mixed reality developers and fans alike. In 2017, we have seen a constant stream of new hardware and software releases hitting the virtual shelves. And while most of them have been in the form of developer kits, they bring with them hope and the potential promise of amazing things in the future.