This week's Brief Reality is led by a pair of stories with an eye to the future of the augmented reality industry, first in terms of standards for the industry, then with regards to its future applications in the automotive realm. Finally, one company looks to boost its future sales with an executive hire.
A new technological movement without the technology itself is just an idea sitting and waiting. Once the technology is present in the equation, movement forward can begin. This is how many of us see the head-mounted displays (HMDs) and smartglasses that have recently entered the augmented and mixed reality market — or are coming out in the next few months. This is a movement that will sweep over the world, changing everything in its path, and these are some of the people behind it.
While the world is only recently becoming aware of its existence, augmented reality has been around in some form or another since the '90s. In the last decade, with the advancement and miniaturization of computer technology — specifically smartphones and tablets — AR has become far more viable as a usable tool and even more so as a form of entertainment. And these are the people behind mobile AR to keep an eye on.
Galaxy S8 preorders have begun arriving at doorsteps, and some websites seem to be enamored by Samsung's latest visual revamp of TouchWiz — but don't buy the hype, it's a trap! From TouchWiz to Grace UX to Samsung Experience, no matter what the name is, it's still the same old clunky framework everyone has hated from the start. Samsung may have put a fancy little bow on it, but TouchWiz is still a resource-hogging behemoth underneath its shiny new theme.
Rooting a phone lets us install custom operating systems, known as ROMs, which replace the device's preinstalled OS. Most custom ROMs are based on code from the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), which gives them a look and feel similar to Google's version of stock Android. But every now and then, you'll see a ROM that isn't based on Android, though these are few and far between — at least, until now.
Upskill, an enterprise software developer for industrial augmented reality applications, recently received an influx of funding and a major vote of confidence from two of their top customers.
Microsoft, even being Apple's fierce competitor, is no stranger to producing iOS apps—in fact, they've made 94 of them. But their latest iOS app may be their silliest yet: a goofy photo editor named Sprinkles.
ASUS is gearing up to move its augmented and virtual reality departments into an independent startup named Glamorfy, according to a recent report from tech news site Fudzilla.
Don't ignore the update sitting in your Settings app; you'd be leaving your iPhone's security vulnerable.
The newest version of Snapseed features three awesome new tools for you photo-editing enthusiasts. The 2.17 update for the editing app was rolled out on Tuesday, March 21, and its new additions are something to behold.
The rumors have been confirmed by Samsung themselves: Samsung has developed a virtual assistant of their own, named Bixby.
You can get eggs and high-quality compost from backyard chickens—but you can also get Salmonella.
Any stoked Coachella-goers out there? Well, get even more excited, because the celebrated music festival has partnered with virtual reality company vantage.tv and software platform Camera IQ this year to take the Coachella VR/AR app to augmented reality paradise.
It's the bane of many a tech geek's existence that the customizability of Android software cannot be combined with the sleek design of the iPhone. A new Kickstarter project titled Eye, however, is looking to change that with a new iPhone case that allows you to combine the two.
Throughout the summer and fall of 2016, in the sudden whirlwind that was Pokémon GO, it was hard to go anywhere in public without seeing someone attempting to catch Pokémon. Now, thanks to an upcoming platform called Motive.io, from the Vancouver company of the same name, location-driven application development will soon be accessible to everyone.
The LG V20 is a true audiophile's phone when it comes to playing music through headphones, but it only has a single bottom-firing mono speaker. So even though the V20 has received plenty of praise for its overall audio experience, that single built-in speaker ruins the fun by putting out some shoddy and cheap-sounding audio.
A development team in Silicon Valley is nearing early access release of a new hardware-independent augmented reality platform called Phantom AR.
An interesting new use-case for the Microsoft HoloLens appeared in a YouTube video from Washington-based DataMesh last month. In it, you can see the HoloLens working in conjunction with the Microsoft Surface Studio, Surface Dial, and Surface Pen for 3D model detailing and visualization in real time.
3D modeling is usually a very long and complicated process. Manipulating the thousands to millions of vertices, faces, and triangles to the correct shape you want is just the first part of the process, and can take a good while depending on the level of detail needed. From there, you need to texture the model by applying the UV coordinates and placing the textures in the correct places. And all of this isn't even including the process of creating normal maps.
If you need to do some hardcore multitasking on your Windows PC, a second monitor can go a long way towards getting things done. If you opt to "extend" your Windows desktop across a dual monitor setup, it's as if you have two computers side by side, with each display getting its own set of windows and programs that can be open simultaneously.
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...
When you're sitting at your desk trying to get some work done, your Android device can be a big distraction. If a text comes in, you have to pick up your phone, unlock it, then respond with the clumsy touch screen keyboard—and by then, you've probably forgotten what you were doing on your computer.
In response to the flurry of doubtful headlines about Magic Leap today, set off by an unflattering article from The Information, Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz released a short blog post quickly detailing what to expect from the company over the next year. The gist comes down to this: big things are happening in 2017.
At the WinHEC Shenzen 2016 Keynote, Microsoft showed off a system running Windows 10 smoothly on an ARM processor. This could be great news for developers of mixed reality software.
Ready to finally play some Pokémon on your HoloLens? Here is your chance! KennyWdev has released a video showing off his newest build of PokéLens, a Pokémon clone for the HoloLens similar to Pokémon GO. In the video, you get to see two Pokémon battle it out on what appears to be an office floor. Apparently, Pikachu is "super effective." This coincidentally appeared online the same day that another developer, Sky Zhou, showed off his Smash Brothers-style Pokémon game.
If you've ever been inspired to try out 3D modeling after enjoying computer-generated imagery in video games and movies, chances are you've checked out an paid applications like 3ds Max (previously called 3D Studio Max), or even free ones like Blender, then just went "No Way! It's way too complicated."
The next generation in mobile communications has officially arrived. A new "Universal Profile" was just published to help carriers and OEMs enable Rich Communication Services (RCS) on any of their smartphones, and the standard hopes to replace SMS with a feature-rich, iMessage-like experience on all phones.
Today in Los Angeles, Unity will be at the Loews Hollywood Hotel to host Unite '16, its annual developer conference. Unite is Unity's platform for showing the development community its upcoming direction and roadmap for augmented and virtual reality, game development, 3D technology, and more.
After enabling disk encryption, creating encrypted disk images, installing KeePassX and iTerm2, and using Git with local repositories, the next step to getting your Mac computer ready for hacking is setting up a package manager that can install and update open-source hacking tools. There are multiple options to choose from, but Homebrew has a slight advantage.
In the past, some of Google's Nexus devices have had root methods even before the phones hit shelves. The Google Pixel and Pixel XL are basically Nexus devices from a software standpoint, so why have we gone more than a week since release without a working root method or custom recovery?
For some strange reason, Google left several of the Pixel's best software features disabled by default. One of the more interesting tweaks that fall into this category is a gesture that puts your fingerprint scanner to use after you've unlocked your phone.
Google's new Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones have a feature that puts their fingerprint scanners to use after you unlock your phone—just swipe down on the scanner from any screen, then you'll see your notifications. It keeps you from having to do hand gymnastics to reach the status bar at the top of your screen, and it gives you easy access to quick information, so it's a win-win.
Google makes Android, but now, Google makes its own phones, too. Until this point, they've always stayed on the software side of things and let Samsung and friends handle the hardware, but their new Pixel phones are changing all of that.
The future for the Meta 2 augmented reality headset will have to wait. While shipments were supposedly on their way out back in June, Meta revealed today that they need a bit more time to provide the best possible experience—and that's really for the best.
Jurassic Park makes a great (and sometimes mediocre) action movie, but hopefully isn't the sort of thing we're dumb enough to actually make. Fortunately, on the HoloLens, you can now walk with the dinosaurs with no risk to your life and limbs.
If you've ever played the game of Would You Rather, you've probably been given the ultimatum between eating insects or doing something else that sounds absurd, like licking a cactus. I'm advising you to always choose the insects, and here's why:
You can easily take audio for granted in virtual reality, but realistic sound in VR isn't an afterthought. It not only involves creating surround sound within a pair of headphones, but figuring out where the sound ought to exist based on your position and line of sight.
As people experiment with mixed reality software, we're seeing applications that cover the entire spectrum of human interest. Anything that can exist in the physical world has a place in the holographic one. And just as we enjoy building various contraptions with real parts, a new app called ARails knew we'd feel the same about digital ones.
When was the last time you restarted or shutdown your Mac? In the post-iPhone era, most devices are now powered on almost constantly. For better or for worse, the computing landscape has accommodated this "always on" trend, but you still need to periodically restart your devices—especially your Mac.
Microsoft recently announced that they're producing HoloLens units fast enough to keep up with demand, which means you can acquire up to five dev kits right now—if you've got the $3,000 fee for each one.
