augmentedreality
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Mercedes AR app gives truck drivers crucial info on their rig
Mercedes isn't new to experimenting with augmented reality, and at MWC 2018 the company showed off its latest creation with that technology. The "Vehicle Lens" app is exactly what it sounds like: It uses a smartphone to give you an AR view of a car or truck, showing vital information as you move around and point the camera at different parts of your ride. If you have it facing the wheels, for example, you see details about tire pressure. That will come in handy before taking a trip. In addition to that, Vehicle Lens can display engine info like mileage and coolant levels, how much fuel there is and personal info about drivers -- including if they've been driving for too long.
Android's official augmented reality toolkit is available to the public
Google's take on a mobile augmented reality framework is no longer limited to a modestly-sized preview. It just released ARCore 1.0, letting anyone publish Android apps that take advantage of the toolkit to meld virtual objects with the real world. To no one's surprise, Google has already lined up apps from big-name brands to take advantage of the new platform. Snapchat has an AR "portal" that takes you inside FC Barcelona's Camp Nou stadium, while Porsche lets you explore the Mission E Concept as if it were parked in front of you. A number of games (such as Ghostbusters World and a range of titles from NetEase) and home furnishing apps (Sotheby's, JD.com, Easyhome and Otto) are also on tap.
Niantic to host 48 real-life Ingress events around the world
Niantic hasn't forgotten its old, less-popular game Ingress even though its name has mostly been associated with Pokémon Go these past couple of years. After giving us a sneak peek of its revamp called Ingress Prime late last year, the AR game-maker has revealed that it's hosting 48 free real-world events for the hidden-reality sci-fi game in 2018 and 2019. They'll take place around the globe, adding layers of mystery in augmented reality to cities, turning them into interactive locations where players can find "portals," mostly on public art and landmarks.
Magic Leap's AR headsets will start at around $1,000
Magic Leap is spilling more and more of its secrets as it gets nearer to releasing its first mixed reality headset this year. At Recode's annual Code Media conference, Magic Leap chief Rony Abovitz has revealed the company's plans to release not one, but multiple versions of the headset. He also announced its deal with the NBA to show basketball games in mixed reality.
Google adds AR objects to its GIF-making Android app
Google is the latest company to borrow Snapchat's augmented reality features, although this time it's not grafting them on to a social app. The company has released a new version of Motion Stills for Android that brings AR objects to your animated GIFs and videos. You can add chickens, dinosaurs and other objects to any horizontal surface in your shot, whether it's your hand, a plant or a table. And importantly, you don't have to be finicky when capturing your footage to make the result seem 'natural' -- it's using instant motion tracking tech that avoids the jarring visual anomalies you sometimes get in AR.
Intel spin-out could launch AR smart glasses this year
Intel is reportedly working on a pair of AR smart glasses codenamed 'Superlite.' According to Bloomberg, the wearable will be part of a new hardware division, possibly called Vaunt, and could launch later this year. Intel wants to sell a majority stake in the business, which it's currently valuing at roughly $350 million. Investment, of course, is about financial aid, but the company is reportedly interested in sales and design expertise too. The device itself supposedly connects to your phone over Bluetooth and overlays images with a laser-based projector that reflects off the lens.
The auto industry is head over heels for VR
Virtual reality and augmented reality are all over the North American International Auto Show floor. Chevrolet, Ford, Honda, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen are all using the tech to show off their latest cars and concepts. During the industry preview days (the show is open to the public through Sunday, January 28th) lines to try the experiences stretched around each booth. The value to prospective customers is directly tied to the quality of each experience, though, and that quality shifts dramatically from one automaker to the next. Instead of thoughtful experiences that work within VR's current limitations and are simultaneously informative and entertaining, more often than not, the VR implementations felt like cheap amusement park gimmicks with little regard for the user's comfort.
RED's Hydrogen One smartphone will ship this summer
RED's much-hyped Hydrogen One smartphone is edging ever-closer to market, according to an update from its creators. In a thread on the camera company's reduser forums, the makers of the holographic-display phone have revealed pre-order will open "probably in April," with an official ship date "sometime in the summer". Details beyond this are vague, but according to the post carrier support for the phone is "unprecedented" and social media partners will include "big dogs."
The most eye-catching cars and tech from NAIAS 2018 in Detroit
The North American International Auto Show's press and industry preview week is winding down, but the show is far from over. Next week the NAIAS opens to the public and if can't make it to the Mitten State yourself but still want a peek at what's tucked inside Detroit's Cobo Center, we've got you covered. HoloLens and VR? Check. A Chevy pick-up with snowmobile treads for tires? Mhrm. Same goes for a Mercedes G-Class Wagon trapped inside a brick of "amber" resin. Hell, we even got the Michelin Man to flex his muscles for a photo. There's a lot to see, so kick back, pour yourself a frosty beverage and peep the slideshow below on the biggest monitor available.
The next weird 3DS game includes a tiny fishing reel
Japan's fondness for games with highly specialized controllers frequently produces wonderfully weird results. If you need proof, you just need to look at Bandai Namco's upcoming Baku Tsuri Bar Hunter for the 3DS. The manga-linked augmented reality fishing game revolves around an elaborate add-on case that scans barcodes to add sealife, and a tiny reel (plus the 3DS' own motion controls) to catch creatures. In essence, it's the lovechild of Bass Fishing and Barcode Battler. It absolutely sounds like it shouldn't work, but it looks like a blast in the promo video... at least, for gamers willing to scan their shopping.
GAC's En Verge concept packs a digital dash and AR for passengers
Chinese automaker GAC is making waves at the North American International Auto Show. "We want you to give us a chance to challenge ourselves," GAC group president Feng Xingya said from the stage, before unveiling GAC's first all-electric concept, the En Verge. The En Verge is a two-door compact crossover SUV. The first thing you'll notice are those massive ports on the front bumper. While they look like they're for cooling, they're actually removable fog lamps. Called G-Torches, they double as flashlights for when you want to do some off-trail exploring. Handy!
Make-up brand taps AR to help you find the perfect brow shape
Benefit Cosmetics is throwing people all over the world a high-tech lifeline before they drown in desperation over failing to find the right brows for their face shape. The make-up company has teamed up with digital makeover veteran Modiface to create Brow Try-On, an augmented reality tool that can show what you'll look like with different eyebrows before you attack your real ones with a blade and a tweezer.
DeepFrame brings augmented reality to a huge screen
It's easy to feel a bit disillusioned with all the hype around augmented reality. We've seen basic examples of AR take off, with apps like Pokemon Go, but that's not exactly immersive. AR glasses, meanwhile, are still finding their legs. But Realfiction believes there's another approach: its large 64-inch screen called DeepFrame. It basically takes the AR experience we've seen from things like Meta's glasses and transforms it into something that a whole crowd of people can see. While it's not something you'd ever get at home, it could change the way we interact with stores and museums.
Merge is the closest thing we have to an AR Nerf gun
The folks at Merge picked a fitting name for their augmented-reality company, considering that their latest product combines the fun of Nerf guns with the fantasy of first-person shooters. The 6DoF Blaster is a lightweight plastic gun with four clickable buttons, including the trigger, and a space for a smartphone to rest horizontally across its top. The game plays out on the screen, with players ducking, walking and shooting as if the action were taking place in the real world.
NextVR lets you peek around players while watching VR sports
Watching concerts and sports in VR is great up until someone blocks the camera's view. Unlike in real life, you can't really poke your head around... or can you? NextVR wants to make that happen -- it's introducing six-degrees-of-freedom movement to on-demand VR videos. If a player or ref is getting in the way of a sweet play, you can just lean over to see what you're missing. The feature is coming sometime in 2018, and there are promises of 6DOF movement for live videos sometime after that.
Live from the HTC Vive press event at CES 2018!
HTC Vive is one of the most promising virtual reality platforms at the moment, and today at CES 2018 we'll get to see what the company has planned for the future. It's not clear if there will be any new hardware unveiled, but we'll definitely learn more details about HTC Vive's latest headset, the Focus. Of course, that means there will be a bunch of never-before-seen VR experiences, so let's hope there are some good, mind-blowing ones. We'll be liveblogging the event at 1PM PT/4PM ET -- bookmark this page to keep up with the action as it happens.
ThirdEye’s AR glasses come with massive swappable batteries
I know what you're thinking, and yes: These are some dorky-looking AR glasses. What they lack in style, however, they arguably make up for in battery life. The ThirdEye X1 packs two hot-swappable batteries with a combined 2,400mAh of charge -- more than any of its competitors, apparently. That means the glasses, which project a 90-inch virtual "screen" roughly 10 feet in front of you, can last all day provided you have plenty of fresh batteries. At CES, I was able to put them on and get a brief glimpse of its AR capabilities. Unfortunately, though, the team at the booth could summon little more than a misty loading screen. (Lame.)
Scientists made a virtual supernova you can walk around
At 11,000 light-years away, it's safe to say you won't be able to visit Cassiopeia A even if private space corporations start selling seats to amateur spacefarers. Thanks to a team of scientists, though, you might be able to see the 300-year-old supernova remnant up close -- or even walk inside it. The team used data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Spitzer Space Telescope and ground-based facilities to create a 3D model of Cassiopeia A with VR and AR elements. You'll be able to walk into the model, engage with parts of the remnant and conjure up short captions on what you're seeing and "touching."
Magic Leap One: All the things we still don’t know
It's that time of year again: the special season when everybody's favorite mythical creature makes its annual appearance. That's right, it's Magic Leap hardware teaser season! Seemingly once a year, the secretive startup reveals what it's been up to, and on Wednesday it revealed renderings of its latest AR headset prototype. The company even deigned to allow a Rolling Stone reporter to take the system for a spin. But for everything that Magic Leap showed off, the demonstrations and teaser materials still raise as many questions as they answer. There's a whole lot about the Magic Leap system that we don't know, so maybe let's hold off on losing our minds about the perceived imminent AR revolution until we do.
Charizard will look life-size with the 'Pokémon Go' AR+ update
The latest update for Pokémon Go doesn't add new monsters. Instead, it takes advantage of iOS 11's advanced augmented reality tech to give you a better look at them. "The new AR+ feature builds on the core AR gameplay in Pokémon Go and leverages Apple's ARKit framework to enhance the visuals and dynamics of catching Pokémon in the real world," a blog post says. Meaning, Pikachu and pals will now be the proper size based on where you find them. Getting closer or backing up will cause them to change in size and perspective from here on out assuming you have an iPhone 6s or newer.
