Augmented Reality News Features

HoloLens Feature: Spatial Mapping

Once you've designed some holograms with HoloLens, you'll need to get them to interact with the environment. That's where Spatial Mapping comes in. There are five basic purposes for using HoloLens's Spatial Mapping with your app:

News: Hunt Zombies Instead of Pokémon with AR Game Based on the Walking Dead

Niantic pioneered location-based augmented reality gaming with Ingress and popularized it with Pokémon Go, but others have attempted to replicate the model without reaching the level of success that Niantic has garnered.

News: Apple Teams with Ariana Grande for '7 Rings' Animoji Music Video

The last six months have been filled with ups and downs for international music superstar Ariana Grande, but she's starting 2019 on a new, virtual foot, powered by Apple's iPhone TrueDepth camera.

News: BMW Invites You to Test Drive the X2 with Snapchat Lens

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.

News: Nickelodeon Reels in AR Mode for Popular Mobile Game Sky Whale

One of the most popular mobile games out there for kids has added an augmented reality mode that brings the titular character into the real world.

News: Mimesys Brings Its Version of Augmented Reality Video Calling to Magic Leap via Intel RealSense

The release of Avatar Chat for Magic Leap One and Spatial for HoloLens during the fourth quarter of 2018 appeared to revolutionize video calling via augmented reality.

News: Google Brings Marvel's Avengers & Childish Gambino to AR with Playground for Pixel

If you own a Google Pixel, you'll soon have augmented reality versions of Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, and Childish Gambino on your camera.

Dev Report: A Breakdown of the What Apple's New ARKit Can Do for iPhones & iPads

At Apple's yearly event, the World Wide Developers Conference, the tech giant finally announced their decision to enter the augmented reality space. Through adding basic AR functionality to the beta release of Xcode 9, the development environment for Mac computers, as well as their line of iOS devices, the company has said they understand the importance of the tech.

News: Make Apps for HoloLens in JavaScript with HoloJS

A new repository appeared in Microsoft's GitHub account a few months ago for a project called HoloJS. For those JavaScript developers out there that have been wanting to make HoloLens apps, this one's for you.

Developer Spotlight: AfterNow's Creative Approach to UX Design & IoT in Mixed Reality

If you have a HoloLens, you can now control the lighting throughout your home or office via holographic controls using the free Hue Lights app in the Windows Store. The app, made by California-based AfterNow, works with the Philips Hue colored lighting system and is much more polished than the prototype we saw in January.

News: KabaQ Transitions the Traditional Restaurant Menu to Augmented Reality

If you've ever browsed a restaurant menu and wondered what a particular dish looks like, then the augmented reality mobile app from Kabaq was made for you.

News: Walmart Turns Its iPhone App's Barcode Scanner into an Augmented Reality Price Comparison Tool

While many retailers have introduced try-before-you-buy features in their apps, Walmart has gone in another direction by bringing shoppers an augmented reality tool to help them compare products they want to buy.

News: The Crazy Process Behind the HoloLens Optics That Make Mixed Reality Possible

Tricking your eyes into seeing 3D images isn't all that hard in movies or even in virtual reality, but when you start projecting holograms into the physical world, you run into some difficult problems. Microsoft obviously figured them out with their HoloLens, but how? The process is pretty amazing.

News: The Enterprise Leap — Robots, Gremlins, & Games Won't Save Magic Leap, but Tapping the Inner Child of CEOs Just Might

Mystery is a tricky thing. Used correctly, it can give onlookers the impression that wondrous and perhaps valuable things are afoot. However, once the veil of suspension of disbelief is removed in any significant way, that same mystery can quickly turn into not just skepticism, but outright anger at what may have seemed like an attempt to dupe trusting onlookers.

News: This Smart App Makes HoloLens Room Scanning a Game All on Its Own

Complex games in mixed reality require a pretty detailed scan of the room, and getting this process right can be both time-consuming and annoying. Computer science students at the University of Washington decided to fix that by turning it into a game.

News: Magic Leap Shows Off Spatial Computing Demo, FCC Docs Reveal New Controller Images

Magic Leap just did something it didn't do during its recent Twitch hardware demo: show us some new demo footage of what augmented reality really looks like through the Magic Leap One.

How To: Ingress, Google's Awesome New Mind-Hacking AR Game for Android Phones Now in Beta!

Google has just launched a new revolutionary augmented reality game for Android called Ingress. Their new mobile game centers around the fight for control of the minds of everyone here on Earth. It's a freaking worldwide fight—from your smartphone! While augmented reality in is nothing new in the smartphone gaming world, it has never seen the likes of this. With an almost Halo-like storytelling, Ingress seeks to bring out gamers all across the globe to perform physical activities by transform...

News: Jack Daniel's Joins the Augmented Reality Marketing Fray with Interactive Label & App

While Jack Daniel's is one of the most iconic brands in the liquor business, when it comes to augmented reality marketing, it's joining a long list of others telling a very familiar story in the growing marketing medium.

Apple AR: Starfox AR Uses iPhone X to Turn Your Face into a Level Boss

An AR/VR developer has managed to use the iPhone X to transport players into an emulation of the classic '90s video game Star Fox as the game's antagonist.

News: Did NASA Leak the HoloLens 2 in This Video?

Rumors are swirling today that NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) may have shown us the first public glimpse of the next-generation HoloLens. Are they real? Or just a prototype? We've been digging in all day to find the answers.

News: Magic Leap Producer Interview Gives Rare Insight into Company's Culture Before Disappearing from the Web

In what's becoming something of a regular occurrence, Magic Leap has yet another internal, unforced error on its hands. Thankfully, this time it's not about legal skirmishes or theft, but a rather unusual break from company protocol that has been quickly swept under the rug.

News: Moschino & H&M Harness the Power of Magic Leap One to Intro Augmented Reality to the Fashion World

Magic Leap has already entered the realm of entertainment and enterprise, but on now it has blazed its way into a new augmented reality frontier: fashion.

News: This AR App Could Make Your Next Dentist Visit Less Frightening

For some, going to the dentist can be a terrifying experience, but a new use of augmented reality could go a long way toward making the trip feel more like it's worth the orthodontic angst.

News: FaceCake Uses Snapchat-Like Camera Effects to Let You Try on Earrings Instead of Masks & Rainbows

Although it sounds like a foodie's take on Facebook, what Calabasas, California-based FaceCake actually offers is more about augmented reality fashion marketing rather than food selfies.

How To: Iterate Faster Inside Unity Using Holographic Emulation

In recent weeks, Unity has made a few great leaps forward for HoloLens development. These new features will increase iteration speed inside Unity and quickly increase the output of applications in the mixed reality space. Of these new features, let's take some time to talk about Holographic Emulation and why this will do so much for the development community.

News: Pokémon GO Unveils the Good, Bad & Weird Sides of Gaming in Augmented Reality

Pokémon GO made waves as the first augmented reality game to gain popular adoption. In fact, it was so popular that it only took a few days to uncover some the benefits and serious issues with combining physical and digital worlds.

Apple AR: Zynga's CSR 2 for iPhone Puts Your Dream Car Within Virtual Reach with AR Mode

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.

News: Pokémon GO's Nearby Menu Is Lying to You—Here's Why All the Pokémon Have 3 Footprints

The easiest way to see which Pokémon are close to your current location in Pokémon GO is by checking the Nearby tracker in the bottom-right of your screen. At least this was the easiest way up until a few days ago. Initially, the Pokémon in the Nearby screen would be marked with between zero and three footprint icons—the more footprints, the further away a Pokémon is from your location. Pokémon with zero footprints should be visible to you.

News: Snapchat Lens Studio Adds New Segmentation Templates to Its Bag of Augmented Reality Tricks

On Thursday, Snap released three new templates for its Lens Studio that will give creators access to augmented reality capabilities previously only available to Snap's own design team.

How To: Android + Drive Assist = Augmented Reality Goodness for Your Car

While texting and driving may get you a ticket, there are still a ton of uses for your phone in your car, music and navigation just to name a couple. Every Android device comes with access to GPS and traffic updates, but none of those apps really have your back in real-time.

News: Theaters Turn to Mobile AR Gaming to Reclaim Pre-Show Movie Experience

Moviegoers who arrive at the theater early are no longer a captive audience for the ads, trivia, and miscellaneous content that precede the movie trailers than run before the feature presentation, as the ubiquity of the smartphone has become the preferred distraction for early birds at the theater.

News: Apple iOS 11.3 Update Introduces Brand New Set of Animoji Characters

We knew it was coming, it was just a matter of when. Apple has just announced iOS 11.3, a new update for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, and it will include a brand-new set of Animoji for the iPhone X.

News: This App Turns the iPhone X into an AR Face-Painting Booth

Thanks to Face Maker, a new app for the iPhone X, children everywhere can now avoid the trauma of face painting.

Dev Report: Microsoft's First HoloLens Update in Over a Year Now Available in Preview, Hints at Big Plans for 2018

After more than a year and a half of silence, the rumors have morphed into reality: Microsoft has finally released an update for the HoloLens. And with that update comes a collection of new features that hint at big plans for the HoloLens this year.

News: Taqtile's HoloMaps Gives HoloLens Users Ability to View, Scale & Draw on 3D Maps

HoloMaps, an application by Seattle-based Taqtile, is available for free on the Windows Store. Taqtile, whose Vice President of Product Management was Microsoft's former Director of Business Development, is one of the few partners currently in the Microsoft HoloLens Agency Readiness Program. This interactive 3D map they have created, powered by Bing, offers more than just a top-down view of the world on the HoloLens.

Apple AR: Become Pac-Man with Immersive Augmented Reality Game

There have been many classic games that have been rebooted thanks to Apple's ARKit, including Tetris, but none have been quite so immersive as this one. YouTube user KobiSnir has created an augmented reality Pac-Man game where you are Pac-Man, dubbed "ARMan."

News: Magic Leap One Makes a Surprise Appearance During World Cup TV Show

Magic Leap shows up in the weirdest places. Last week, right at the start of World Cup fever, for some reason, the Magic Leap One appeared on a Brazilian television show.

How To: Perform the Air Tap Gesture Correctly on the HoloLens

Microsoft's HoloLens has two gestures: bloom and air tap. While the two might not seem like much to learn, some people struggle with the air tap because the headset can be a bit particular. The easiest way to learn the proper form is to look through someone else's eyes while they do it, so we've captured that for you.

Hands-On: Hands-On with Magic Leap's Undersea, an AR Experience That Transports You to Another World

The latest immersive production from Magic Leap Studios finally got its debut on Monday at Siggraph, during which the company also released the app to the general public, so we took it for a spin.

News: Vertebrae Standing Up AR Ad Platform for ARKit Arrival

When iOS releases in the next few weeks, consumers on both iOS and Android operating systems can expect to see more AR ads in the mobile web browsers thanks to Vertebrae, an advertising platform for immersive media.