We've heard a lot about self-driving taxis, as car and ride-sharing companies compete to win the driverless gold rush. But FedEx wants to bring its enterprise into the mix, as the head of its freight division has asked the US government to develop laws for self-driving trucks.
Welcome to the maiden voyage of our new Market Reality column. Each Friday, NextReality will give you a roundup of news briefs from the financial end of the augmented and mixed reality industry. We'll cover funding news, market analysis, and more.
Could the technology that powers games like Pokémon GO be used for surgery in the near future? Researchers at the University of Maryland think so.
ModiFace, the makers of Sephora's Virtual Artist app which allows users to try on multiple different combinations of makeup through augmented reality, has just bumped up its augmented reality strategy. The company is now including a live-stream option for all those personal makeup trials you've been secretly admiring from the comfort of your own phone.
Amazon has been toying with the idea of opening physical retail stores for some time now, even opening old-fashioned bookstores in select locations and teasing cashier-less convenience stores. But the online retailer has some new ideas in the works, including implementing virtual and augmented reality into retail home stores.
At Adobe Summit 2017 this week, Adobe announced they are looking to occupy a new space in the market by combining their analytic capabilities with augmented reality. Teaming up with Microsoft, the company has combined Adobe Sensei software with the HoloLens, reports GeekWire. Together, the tech and software create a new tool for retailers to track their consumers' habits.
Augmented reality upstart DAQRI announced today that it has strengthened their in-house talent by recruiting renowned physicist Seamus Blackley and acquiring a team of 15 engineers and scientists from Heat Engine, LLC.
A market research report, posted on February 27, 2017, forecasts that the image recognition market will grow to nearly $40 billion worldwide by 2021. The market, which includes augmented reality applications, hardware, and technology, generated an estimated $15.95 billion in 2016. The report estimates the market to grow by a compound annual growth rate of 19.5% over the next five years.
Imagine wearing your HoloLens, then reaching out to touch a hologram and actually feeling it. Mind blown, right?! Now imagine that same hologram responding to your touch. I don't mean in the way holograms currently respond to an air tap, but a much more refined and precise touch. Maybe you touch a character on the shoulder and it turns around to see you, or maybe you hit a button in the air and it reacts accordingly.
Google and Microsoft have both established platforms and hardware for emerging digital realities, but Apple, true to form, hasn't had much to say on the subject. They've shown interest in augmented reality, and we've seen patent filings that indicate research and development, but a recent rumor points to that research ending up in your car instead of a rose gold headset.
Microsoft's HoloLens may the coolest new advancements in technology we've seen in quite some time, and anyone (with deep pockets) can buy one right now. But so far it's been an isolated platform where you experience mixed reality alone and others watch you air tap nothing but air. Developers are working to change that, and we're seeing the first examples crop up online already.
Apple announced their new iPhones today, and the 7 Plus features two camera lenses on its backside. That could push smartphone photography ahead in a major way. It may also serve as the basis for their foray into virtual, augmented, and mixed reality.
It's impossible to predict the future, but it's fun to try. Adapted from Daniel H. Wilson's short story of the same name, filmmaker Giacomo Cimini's short film "The Nostalgist" shows a futuristic world where mixed reality serves as an escape from a less-desirable physical world.
Mixed reality (MR) feels like an amazing, almost mind-blowing futuristic technology—but only once you've experienced it for yourself. Words, images, and even videos simply cannot describe the experience in full. If you want to really peer into the future and experience MR for yourself, you can sign up and just go in many cities.
Opera's web browser for Android, Opera Mini, now comes with integrated ad-blocking technology for a less cluttered browsing experience. More importantly, it decreases the amount of data being loaded, which Opera claims increases webpage loading times by 40 percent. This is in addition to the 90 percent data reduction from Opera Mini's compression technology.
Welcome back, curious hackers! In today's tutorial, we will be diving deep into the manipulation of Google Operators, commonly referred to as "Google Dorks" in order to access Surveillance Cameras and other control panels.
Looking back at my childhood in the '90s, I can't help but feel like I was deceived. Movies that took place in the "future," like in the year 2015, would showcase awesome technology. You know, self-driving or flying cars, hoverboards, and virtual displays controlled with hand gestures—so where are they?!
The Galaxy S5's screen is truly a feat of modern technology. It uses what is known as an AMOLED display—an acronym for Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emmitting Diode. In short, this technology means that every individual pixel on your phone's screen emits its own light. This is a break from the traditional LCD technology that requires a backlight for any pixels to be visible.
Learn how to build a remote controlled beer keg. Not only can you deliver beer to friends, but you can control the drinker's access to it. It's sort of like a remote control bartender!
Learn how to origami a crane with this demonstration by a Japanese surgeon. Watch as he makes origami with the DaVinci robot, a surgical tool powered by state-of-the-art robotic technology. The surgeon’s hand movements are scaled, filtered and seamlessly translated into precise movements of the EndoWrist Instruments. Making origami will never be more interesting. Check out the size of the origami paper crane!! Amazing!
Elevators have been an essential part of construction sites since the Pyramids. If you want to put this technology to use in Minecraft beta, without using your redstone or water, check out this video to learn a design for a trapdoor elevator.
Trekking poles make carrying heavy load across long distances on foot, like you do when you're on a backpacking trip, much easier. This video will help you make sure you're getting the most out of your trekking poles by teaching you how to make sure that your poles are the correct height for the situation that you are in. Get the most out of your modern hiking technology!
Egyptian art was one of the most advanced in the ancient world, and its images of the god Annubis remain powerful to this day. This tutorial teaches you how to digitally draw the dog-headed god Annubis in Paint. Apply 21st century technology to draw something that was originally done on papyrus thousands of years ago.
One of the great innovations of Canon's DSLR technology is the relatively inexpensive ability it gives to any filmmaker to make professional quality video. This video is a great demonstration of a Glidecam and Steadicam mod designed to carry the Canon 5D Mark II and give any image a slick, professional look.
Vertical and horizontal cracks can mean structural problems in the foundation of your home. New carbon fiber technology can reinforce a cracked or bowing foundation cheaper and using less space than traditional methods. Watch this how to video to learn how to fix common foundation problems in your home.
Take advantage of 21st century technology by using these seven simple and inexpensive steps to improving your brain power.
The still-unfolding story of China's Nreal augmented reality startup continues to develop, with each turn uncovering another unexpected wrinkle.
Google pushed a new kind of augmented reality walking navigation to the mainstream last year, and now startup Phiar is hoping users will use its AR app in the same way for driving navigation.
One of the hallmarks of augmented reality's coming of age is that the technology is starting to find a home in business categories that are less obvious compared to typical AR enterprise use cases.
It's a good sign for any emerging technology when one of the leaders of an industry adopts it. So when Mastercard, a brand so recognizable that it dropped its name from its logo at CES last year, decides to develop a mobile augmented reality app, the moment is a milestone for the AR industry.
This week, Snapchat parent Snap came closer to fulfilling its smartglasses destiny by adding new 3D content capabilities to its third-generation Spectacles. At the same time, the now defunct Meta Company continued its fall from grace, as a judge ruled in favor of the plaintiff in the patent infringement case against the Meta 1 and Meta 2 headsets.
In recent years, the US military has been utilizing augmented reality as a training tool, giving officers and soldiers an opportunity to train and hone their decision-making, tactical efforts, and weapons accuracy via virtual scenarios.
Augmented reality is becoming a slam dunk for sports entertainment, as leagues, their teams, and their broadcast partners have been quick to adopt AR.
After building its business on virtual reality, Jaunt is leaving the technology behind to focus on building tools for creating augmented reality content.
For the augmented reality hardware industry to progress towards the consumer segment, display technology needs to get better. Investors recognize that, and they are showing AR display makers the money.
If you subscribe to notifications for Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz's Twitter feed, you'd think everyone in the world already has a Magic Leap One. Alas, that is not the case, but those not within the geographic areas of Magic Leap's LiftOff service now have a loophole through which they, too, can join the "Magicverse."
The cosmetics industry faced a rude awakening on Friday as beauty behemoth L'Oréal gobbled up ModiFace, one of the leading providers of augmented reality technology to the cosmetics industry (price details for the acquisition were not disclosed).
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.
RED has apparrantly been blowing minds with the revolutionary technology inside its upcoming Hydrogen One. Like the Razer Phone in late 2017, most of the cool tech lives inside its screen — which, also like the Razer Phone, is unlike any other on the market today. RED, too, is poised to make some major waves in the coming months, as its phone should be arriving in stores this summer.
As the level of data being generated grows exponentially, past the Information Age and into the coming Hyper-Information Age of immersive computing — as resistant as many of us are to the idea — personal data security is becoming a necessary consideration in our everyday lives. Recognizing this, Mastercard, Qualcomm, and Osterhout Design Group have teamed up to show what secure shopping could look like in the very near future with iris authentication.
