Augmented Reality News Features
ARCore 101: How to Create a Mobile AR Application in Unity, Part 2 (Setting Up the Framework)
With the software installation out of the way, it's time to build the framework within which to work when building an augmented reality app for Android devices.
News: Magic Leap Unveils Two New Demos Showing How Spatial Computing Works
The long and slow road toward the actual release of the Magic Leap One appears to be accelerating, with a couple of new demonstrations of how the system works revealed in this week's creator's portal updates along with the company's developer documentation.
News: Mixed Reality Headset 'Linq' Takes Direct Aim at HoloLens' Lack of Gaming
With the release of the HoloLens, Microsoft has put itself in both a great position while giving the competition a serious target to aim for. This is normally the case for anyone that is first to the market with a new idea, and now we've finally got a good competitor HoloLens coming. Stereolabs, a company known for its impressive 2K stereo camera, will be entering the mixed reality head-mounted display space with a Developers Kit as soon as early-2017.
News: 8th Wall Spins Up New 'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse' Augmented Reality Experience for Blu-Ray, DVD Release
Hollywood loves sequels so much that studios and their marketing teams are not too proud to release a sequel of an augmented reality promotion.
News: Magic Leap's Latest Job Posting Shows They're Getting Ready for Mass Production
Few companies have maintained such intense secrecy, in the face of such extreme hype, as Magic Leap, but the closer their mysterious Mixed Reality product comes to mass production, the harder it becomes to hide the details. Hopefully we'll find out way more details soon, as a Magic Leap job posting for a supply chain manager hint that they're readying for release in the next couple years.
Hands-On: Magic Leap's Screens App Is the Closest Thing to a Killer App for the Magic Leap One, For Now
By now, you already know that the Magic Leap One ships with an array of apps to immediately get you accustomed to operating in your new spatial computing reality. The first one we're going to focus on is Screens, an app we told you about previously, but only now have managed to try for ourselves.
News: Google Just Acquired Instant Translator Word Lens—All Language Packs Free for a Limited Time
According to a statement on its website, Quest Visual, the company behind the highly-regarded live translation app Word Lens, has been purchased by Google. This news has ripple effects across both the Android and iOS platforms, as it is likely Word Lens will be discontinued in the near future in favor of incorporating the technology into Google's own Translate app. For now, however, Quest Visual has made all Word Lens language packs available for free in celebration of their new deal with Goo...
News: Occipital's Bridge Headset—The iPhone's Answer to HoloLens—Is Available Now
A new contender has entered the mixed reality ring. San Fransisco-based Occipital has just released an "Explorer Edition" of Bridge—an iPhone-based mixed and virtual reality headset that uses their popular Structure Sensor. At a fraction of the cost of a HoloLens developers kit, this could be a place many curious people use to find their NextReality.
News: Microsoft Opens Access to Sensor Data on the HoloLens with 'Research Mode' Update
The addition of a new research mode for Microsoft HoloLens will enable researchers and developers to tap into a wider range of data collected by the device's sensors.
News: Snapchat Mutates X-Men Fans via Augmented Reality to Sell Tickets for 'Dark Phoenix' Movie
Augmented reality is often likened to granting superpowers to mere mortals, but what about mutant powers?
News: Now There's an Animoji for Rick from 'Rick & Morty'
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.
News: Microsoft Is About to Revolutionize How We Watch Sports at Home
Obviously this is just a teaser, and who knows how soon we'll see something like this in real life, but just go ahead and watch the video first before you continue reading.
News: HoloLens Can Now Wirelessly Tap Rendering Power of Any Desktop PC via UWP Apps Built in Unity
Looking to inject a little more processing juice into your HoloLens? Unity can fix you up with the Standalone Universal Windows Platform Holographic Emulation.
News: HoloStudy Teaches Science in 3D Using the HoloLens
Humans learn best by doing or through an experience, and so the holographic environments provided in virtual and mixed reality are ripe with educational opportunities. HoloStudy took this to heart and created an educational science app that teaches you with animated models you can explore in your own space.
News: HoloFlight Turns Flight Data into Cool Mixed Reality Visualizations
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 surround you with a look at every plane in the sky.
News: Microsoft HoloLens Makes Virtual Teleportation a Reality
Logan's Run is one of my favorite movies of all time. The dialog is cheesy, the set design and special effects are wonky, and the main villain looks like he was conceived and built by an eighth grader in shop class—oh, and his name is Box.
Apple AR: Take a Walk on the Moon with New Space Door Demo
The latest portal demo made with Apple's ARKit is one small step for man, one giant leap for augmented reality. That's right, the latest demo allows you to venture through a door onto a moon from wherever you are.
News: Now Anyone Can Order Vuzix M300 Smart Glasses
Vuzix Corporation has lifted the preorder status on its M300 Smart Glasses, making the augmented reality device available for purchase by resellers, registered developers, enterprises, and consumers.
News: MAC Cosmetics Stores Get AR Makeover with Virtual Try-on Mirrors
While AR apps by Modiface and Perfect Corp. have made it easier for people to shop for makeup without setting foot in a store, MAC Cosmetics wants to give its brick-and-mortar customers the same experience.
News: Smart Home Proof of Concept Uses a Raspberry Pi to Control Air Conditioner with HoloLens
Empea Berlin, a Germany-based company specializing in augmented, mixed, and virtual reality software, released a Facebook video a few months back showing off their experiments in smart home technology. Using a Raspberry Pi and a HoloLens unit, they were able to make a virtual remote control for an air conditioning unit. The remote is complete with various modes, temperature controls, timers, and other features. There have been no updates on this project since they first showed it off, but hop...
How To: Control Your Microsoft Hololens with These Cortana Voice Controls
When Microsoft release an update to the HoloLens Development Edition at the end of May, there were a bunch of cool new features added in. Among them: New voice controls that make working in the HoloLens operating system much easier.
News: Walmart & Target Unwrap New Augmented Reality Features to Bring in Holiday Shoppers
This year's holiday shopping season is shaping up to be fertile ground for augmented reality to show its worth, as both Walmart and Target have crafted immersive experiences designed to engage shoppers in the coming weeks.
HowTo: Make Augmented Reality Cookies
Designer Mike Clare (of my own alma mater, RISD) has extended the augmented reality mania (1, 2, 3) to baked goods. Thanks to the crowd and Josh Delcore at AR World for the find. Here's how it works, via Design Boom:
News: Magic Leap's First Twitch Video Show Had Toys, Philosophy, but No New Peeks at the Headset
We watched the first piece of public-facing content Magic Leap has released so you don't have to, and, well, you didn't miss much.
News: Apple iPhone X App Lets You Wear Your Friend's Face Like a Mask & Put Words in Their Mouth
On Wednesday, Apple released a new batch of Animoji characters that gives iPhone X users more virtual masks to play around with, but what many have been waiting for is an app that lets you put on a virtual mask of another person, not an animated emoji. Well, that day has finally arrived.
News: HoloLens Will Be Your AR Piano Teacher in the Future
You've likely seen light-up musical keyboards that teach you how to play a song with visual cues, but few of those devices exist and have a limited number of songs you can actually learn. But Karl Baumann and his HoloLens Hackathon team figured out that in mixed reality, you can learn music with visual cues with any piano.
News: Magic Leap Made Me Cry, Probably for the Last Time. Here's Why That's the Good News
A lot of digital ink has been spilled heaping scorn on Magic Leap. Much of that media schadenfreude was due to what some believed were unmet promises versus some of the early hype around the product. Others just seemed to be rubbed the wrong way by the startup's Apple-esque secrecy and penchant for attempting to coin new terms and frameworks for things that were, mostly, already in play.
News: 3D Scanning App for iPhone Makes Capturing & Sharing AR Content as Easy as Taking a Picture
Augmented reality app developer Laan Labs has shared a preview of a beta app that achieves 3D scanning with just an iPhone and produces highly-detailed models for sharing with others.
News: What We Know About Magic Leap's Amazing Tech So Far
Virtual reality headsets are all the rage these days, and among the menagerie of tech companies gunning for the top spot, there's one mysterious startup that is ahead of the game—Magic Leap—and you can tell just by watching their latest demo video of their product in action.
News: Microsoft Adds Spatial App Functionality to Office 365's Teams App, Android & Web Interaction Demoed
Months ago, we showed you some of the powers of Spatial, the HoloLens app that allows groups of workers to collaborate in augmented reality using 3D avatars.
News: Trimble Releases SketchUp Viewer, the First Commercial HoloLens Application in the Windows Store
Visualization is one of the obvious commercial applications for technology such as Microsoft's HoloLens. The ability to see the assets of a project in different scales—from micro to larger-than-life—with a quick air tap will play a large part in the coming augmented reality revolution. Whether the assets are art for a game, interior design, raw financial data, or architecture, data visualization will play an important role in the future. This is due, in part, to our ability to absorb informat...
News: Google's ARCore Will Do for Android Hardware What Apple's ARKit Has Done for iPhones
When Apple announced their ARKit platform in June, they immediately staked the claim to the largest augmented reality hardware platform, with millions of iPhones and iPads compatible with iOS 11 becoming AR devices this fall.
How To: Buy a Microsoft HoloLens
Microsoft's HoloLens project is shaping up to be the forerunner of augmented reality. With jaw-dropping features that would allow you to bring entire football games into your living room and control software with your eyes, there's plenty to be excited about with the upcoming AR headset. Up until now, HoloLens has been seen as potential vaporware, considering that the technology it brings to the table is so futuristic that some folks have thought it wouldn't be possible any time soon. But a r...
News: Doctors Team Up to Use HoloLens & VR App to Perform Live Surgery from UK, India & US
The HoloLens has become a frequent sight in medical facilities around the world, but a new demonstration shows just how seamlessly it can be integrated into traditional medical procedures to improve the experience for physicians and patients alike.
News: Microsoft Launches HoloLens 2 Worldwide, Here's a Close-Up Look at the $3,500 Device (Updated)
The long wait is over — the best augmented reality device on the planet is finally available.
News: ManoMotion Updates Its Hand Tracking SDK for Smartphones with Skeleton Tracking
If two hands are better than one, then two hand-tracking SDKs must be better than one as well. After uSens announced its Hand Tracking SDK at the Augmented World Expo in Santa Clara on Thursday, ManoMotion unveiled the latest version of its own SDK. Both technologies give apps the ability to track hand gestures with just a smartphone camera.
News: Inputs for the HoloLens Can Be from Any Device... Even a Smartphone
We've highlighted the projects of Wavelength Studios a few times over recent months for their work in the augmented and mixed reality space. Since receiving their HoloLens headsets, they've been hard at work on both development community projects as well as efforts for clients. This brings us to their latest work—a way to control holograms on the HoloLens with our pocket-based modern miracles, also know as smartphones.
News: Is Magic Leap's Virtual Reality Demo Video Too Good to Be True?
Magic Leap, the virtual-reality software group backed by Google, just released a teaser video on their YouTube channel. In a word, it's amazing.
News: Augmented Reality Cinema App Takes You to the Movies—in Real World Locations
The yet-to-be released Augmented Reality Cinema app is sure to make avid movie fans across the world drool. The concept is genius and appears to be quite seamless as well: Simply install the app on your iPhone, take a stroll through your city (supported cities have not yet been released, but the video below shows London), and aim your phone at various locations to view movie scenes that have been previously shot there.
News: Magic Leap Releases Helio Experiments Demos, Finally Gives Us the Infamous AR Whale
You want whales? Ok, you'll get whales! That seems to be the unspoken message from Magic Leap via its latest update in the form of several new experiments posted inside its Helio app.