Augmented reality business followers, we've got good news and bad news. First, the good news: Upskill closed another round of funding, this time led by strategic investors Cisco and Accenture. (Well, this is probably bad news if you're competing with them on the enterprise AR front.)
Not content to just be a provider of rugged smartglasses for enterprise users, DAQRI has made the jump into the AR software side of the industry with its new Worksense productivity suite.
In any business, there are a number of questions companies must answer in order to get customers to buy a product or service. The same holds true for companies selling augmented reality headsets.
During the unveiling of its content partnership with the NBA, Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz, with an assist from former player/current pitchman Shaquille O'Neal, described at least one of the ways fans would be able to experience sports using the augmented reality device.
On Tuesday, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver joined Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz on stage to unveil a partnership between the two companies.
Investors aren't keen to throw money at a new technology sector without at least some hope of a significant return on their investment in the future. That's why a recent run of activity within the augmented reality business space has stoked some new optimism among the financial community.
With the Super Bowl just days away, it seems appropriate to draw parallels between football and the professional sport of technology business, or, more specifically, the augmented reality segment.
This week, saw two companies leaning on AR to prop up their financial futures. On one hand, Apple made quite a bit of AR-related news ahead of its quarterly earnings report next week. On the other hand, Vuzix launched a pre-order program for its Blade smartglasses and closed the largest financing deal in the company's history to fuel its ongoing headset production.
While it may seem to some like investors are just throwing their money at augmented reality companies simply because the tech is heavily hyped, these money managers do actually want to see a return on their investments.
It would be difficult to discuss the business of augmented reality without acknowledging the annual tech meat market of CES.
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is the first big tech event of 2018. This year, if the early news is any indication, augmented reality could be the big star of the show.
Did you forget to get a Christmas gift for that niece or nephew who you see once a year? If you're lucky, the Walmart near you may have a Merge Cube in stock. When paired with the 57° North game for the Merge Cube, the mysterious-looking cube offers the possibility of extended sessions of virtual adventure in the palm of your hand. Available for $2.99 through the App Store or Google Play, 57° North is a choose-your-own-adventure game that takes place in augmented reality.
With an eye toward future iPhone X-focused augmented reality functions, Apple's new investment in one of its components vendors will increase production capacity for the technology behind its TrueDepth camera, but could also apply to its future AR ambitions.
Now that the holiday season has officially kicked off, Office Depot has updated its popular Elf Yourself app with a few new augmented reality options.
Between Renault Truck's testing of the HoloLens in factories and BMW promoting its newest model through Snapchat, the auto industry is hot for augmented reality to improve internal operations and engage consumers.
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.
If you own a Porsche, there's a good chance you're interested in two things: speed and quality. Porsche Cars North America wants to extend that experience from the driver's seat to the service center.
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.
We may have to wait a few years before they arrive, but reports of Apple's headset taking shape in Cupertino gives the tech world hope that its white knight for consumer AR is on its way.
When the Super Bowl airs, every other TV network puts on reruns because no one wants to face that juggernaut for ratings. The launch of a new iPhone is the Super Bowl of the tech world, with the launch of the iPhone X being the biggest one yet.
So, it's Halloween time, and you feel like playing around with some augmented reality apps? Well, you've come to the right place — if you have an iOS device.
A partnership between augmented reality company Zappar and IoT services provider EVRYTHNG will bring AR experiences to consumers while supplying market data to brands.
For a company who hasn't released a product and has a reputation for being secretive, Magic Leap sure has a tendency to make waves. Over the past few weeks, they've refreshed their website design, released an abstract YouTube video, and announced a partnership with Madefire to offer mixed reality comics on its device whenever it launches. Next, they are gearing up for another round of funding.
According to Digi-Capital, investors poured $1.8 billion into augmented and virtual reality companies over the last 12 months, including $300 million in the third quarter. These investments are not made without a means to monetize products and services.
The launch of the latest line of iPhones came and went without major revelations for advanced AR hardware other than the next iteration of processors and cameras.
The iPhone 8 is just about here. If you're anything like me, you can hardly contain your excitement. Apple has been keeping its 10th-anniversary device — whether you call it the iPhone X, iPhone Edition, or iPhone 8 — as secret as possible, but this past year we've seen a waterfall of leaks. Now that all of the rumors are out of the way, we're finally going to see what's actually in store for Apple's newest iPhone.
It has been an interesting few days in developer news. The Microsoft blog has been busy with information relative to the augmented reality space. Meta 2 has also announced an interesting development this week. Here is a collection of various tidbits that have been collecting up.
Thanks to augmented reality, fashion companies can let customers try on cosmetics, clothes, more cosmetics, and sunglasses from the comfort of their homes and through the non-judgmental eyes of their smartphone camera.
This week, two companies looking to capitalize on the growing augmented reality industry, raised funding from starkly different sources.
As more companies begin adopting augmented reality in the workplace, providers like Vuzix reap the benefits.
In the world we live in now — a world of complete data overload — new ways to sort through that data moves well past "nice-to-have" and firmly into the needs category. Mind mapping has been one tool that allowed someone to break down large problems into like components and help visualize the problems in different ways. Now thanks to Data Experts gmbh's Windows Store release Holo-Mind, we can do that in 3D on the HoloLens.
Augmented reality sells, but who's buying? Over the past week, two companies made executive hires to capitalize on the growth of augmented reality as a service to sell to other businesses. Meanwhile, two companies joined forces to offer augmented reality tools to headset makers and content providers.
Mira Reality unveiled the Mira Prism yesterday and people immediately got excited about it. The Mira Prism uses no electronics besides your iPhone and it works pretty simply. You have a semi-transparent screen in front of your face. Once you open the Mira app on your phone, you just slide it into the Prism and your screen will be reflected across your vision. The Prism seems to be fairly similar to the HoloLens and Google Glass.
If we're being honest, very few people go on Tinder to fall in love with someone's personality. Oftentimes, the only reason they'll look at your bio is to make sure there are no red flags.
In a recent series of tweets, investor and entrepreneur (and NR50 member) Amitt Mahajan summarized the challenges and opportunities for iOS developers looking to leverage Apple's ARKit for augmented reality experiences.
Screen mirroring app iDisplay has arrived for Vuzix M300 Smart Glasses. With the app installed on the M300 and the companion software running on a Mac or Windows computer, users can mirror or extend the computer's desktop to the headset's display, which is connected to the computer via Wi-Fi or USB cable. The app does not yet appear on Vuzix's app store.
A report by PwC highlights that immersive experiences in augmented and virtual reality represent the fastest growing segment of the entertainment and media industry over the next six years. News from two companies working in the industry, Fox and NetDragon, underscore the growth forecast.
Esports — and, subsequently streaming it — are possibly some of the more surprising products of the 21st century so far. Who would have thought that people would be watching professional gamers play, the same way we've watched pro sports players on TV for more than half a decade?
A new feature of Google's Gboard for Android lets users doodle an emoji in order to find it. The change was part of a few updates introduced earlier today.
With so many companies announcing news or demonstrating technologies at the Augmented World Expo 2017, it can be a challenge to see it all. In fact, we are still unpacking some of our in-depth on-site coverage. So, this edition of Brief Reality is focused on the news we did not cover last week.