Archives For augmented reality

Augmented Reality coming to art galleries – whether they like it or not

March 6, 2018 — Leave a comment

There is a digital layer on the entire physical world that can be unlocked with our phones. It’s called Augmented Reality, which is a techie name but pretty self-explanatory.

We’re just starting to explore the value, good and ugly from this technology.

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This fall we saw Jeff Koons’ “Balloon Dog” targeted with AR graffiti in Central Park.

Now we’re seeing apps to unlock artist information and games in galleries — unauthorized, because regulations don’t exist.

Yet.

We live in exciting times.

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Weekly Social Pulse, Week of 2/26

March 2, 2018 — Leave a comment

I Ain’t Afraid of No (Augmented Reality) Ghosts: A short demo of the game Ghostbusters World was showcased at Mobile World Congress this week, showing attendees a preview of the new game built on Google’s new ARCore platform. The Pokemon Go augmented reality treasure hunt phenomenon will soon be tested with some new games like Ghostbusters coming in 2018. We’re most excited for Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. It’s going to be a fun summer. (LINK)

Facebook Messenger Broadcast: Companies can now send a Facebook message to anyone who has begun a conversation with them, thanks to a new product from Facebook for small businesses who don’t have the resources to build a more robust bot platform. Most users won’t like feeling spammed by any page they’ve ever DM’d, so Facebook is capping the number of messages businesses can broadcast to deter spam. But look for more of these Messenger-first tools to come to the marketing toolkit in 2018. (LINK)

So You Say You Would Give Up Social Media? This week the Pew Research Center dropped new 2018 research on social media usage, and it’s pretty expected. Facebook continues to be the most widely used social media platform (68% of U.S. adults), and other than YouTube no other network measured in this survey is used by more than 40% of Americans. Pinterest remains more popular with women. LinkedIn remains popular among college graduates and high earners. And WhatsApp’s popularity is extending to more Latinos in the United States – 49% of Hispanics report that they are WhatsApp users. But here’s the shocker: 59% of social media users think it would not be hard to give up social media, with 29% indicating it would not be hard at all. Yeah, right. (LINK)

Uber Driver has a Spotify Playlist For Every Kind of Passenger: Nobody wants to ride in the back of a stranger’s car in silence. And one Uber driver is making waves this week by sharing the series of Spotify playlists he made for the stereotypes of people he picks up, including: white dudes who look like they like rap, quiet people, f*cking hipsters, basic 20-30s, 30+, and heady bros. The driver, who also studies sociology and video production at college, has only been driving a few weeks but he’s already seeing thousands of followers added to his Spotify Playlists. (LINK)

Here’s “White Dudes Who Look Like They Like Rap”

Wow: This week hundreds of Australians gathered to say ‘wow’ like Owen Wilson. And the internet loved it. “Wow.”

 

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Augmented Reality will radically change how we experience (and create) art

December 1, 2017 — Leave a comment

I believe experiencing augmented reality in the real world fundamentally rewires your brain.

If you haven’t yet played Pokemon Go!, you need to. If you haven’t experimented with Snapchat’s World Lenses, you need to. If you haven’t tested the Microsoft Hololens and solved a mystery in your living room, you need to.

Focusing too hard on the long-term adoption and use cases causes us to see the near-term adoption and opportunities.

This piece in Techcrunch, Why the YouTube of AR won’t be YouTube, tees this up nicely…

This is going to radically change the way we experience (and create) art…

When we think about music or art and context, there’s an example that we’ve all experienced. Compare the difference between listening to music at home vs sitting on a beach overlooking the sunset and choosing a track that’s perfect for that moment. That’s the way in which context is a part of the experience, and emotionally improves it, and in a small way the resulting experience is a collaboration between you & the artist.

AR takes this to a whole new level. An AR device will have a greater awareness of the real-world than any smartphone can have. This means that the ability to match (either automatically or manually) a song or image (or visual effect) to the moment, is far greater than just selecting a track from a playlist.

Source: Why the YouTube of AR won’t be YouTube

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Patent Watch: Apple’s Augmented Reality Is Coming to FaceTime

July 14, 2017 — Leave a comment

Keeping a close eyes on patents, art and culture helps us know where the trends are headed. In this case, Apple has filed for a patent that appears to enable a host of really amazing features in their video calling app, FaceTime…

The patent in point is a new method of creating augmented reality within a live video chat. Augmented reality is basically the ability to overlay graphics onto a screen, and ranges from the simple scores pasted in the corner of your NFL broadcast, up to the cartoon augmented reality of Pokemon Go.

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Apple could push things further by displaying alternate–but equally live–backgrounds behind a video caller. It only has to combine the face-on stream of a traditional camera with the stream from a secondary camera that takes in more of participant’s environment to add extra context. You’d be able to see a closeup of your friend’s face within a wider view of the room, café, or park where they were sitting. Conversely, the light field cameras could cut out a video caller’s image and project it onto a different background in true augmented reality style.

So rather than have the scores plastered over your NFL broadcast, your video calling friend’s image could sit there, instead, and you could watch the game on a stream from your computer and overlay your conversation on top of the action. Or, as with Pokemon Go, you could potentially project that cutout over the live viewpoint of an iPhone so it appears that your friend is sitting on the chair opposite you in a café.  It’s a much more personal experience than having your friend encased within the confines of a chat window.

Source: Apple’s Augmented Reality Is Coming to FaceTime, Using Light Field Camera Tech – VC Daily

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People should be freaking out about Apple’s new Augmented Reality glasses

March 21, 2017 — Leave a comment

I’ve been hearing rumors about this for nearly a year, including multiple off-the-record discussions with people in the know.

Apple will be launching an augmented-reality phone this fall, and AR-glasses (if not this fall, in 2018).

Imagine Google Glass + Microsoft Hololens + Snap Spectacles, at an affordable price point and with functionality within the iOS ecosystem.

At SXSW earlier this month, my friend Robert Scoble told me, “It’s insane we’re at the biggest interactive conference in the world, and nobody is talking about Apple. A year from today, this is all anyone will be talking about.

Brands who aren’t experimenting with AR today will be behind when Apple goes all-in with AR later this year. The time to start is today!

Apple is working on several AR products, including digital spectacles that could connect wirelessly to an iPhone and beam content—movies, maps and more—to the wearer. While the glasses are a ways off, AR features could show up in the iPhone sooner.

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Over time, Munster says, AR devices will replace the iPhone. “It’s something they need to do to continue to grow,” he says, “and defend against the shift in how people use hardware.”

Augmented reality is the less known cousin of virtual reality. VR gets more attention because it completely immerses users in an artificial world and has an obvious attraction for gamers. So far, however, headsets like the Oculus and HoloLens are niche rather than mainstream products. Apple believes AR will be an easier sell because it’s less intrusive. Referring to VR headsets, Cook last year said he thought few people will want to be “enclosed in something.”

Source: Apple’s Next Big Thing: Augmented Reality – Bloomberg

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Patent Watch: Microsoft patent details using augmented reality to find lost keys 

January 2, 2017 — Leave a comment

Art, patents and culture — the three best ways to see where things are headed. And the room-tracking lasers on Microsoft Hololens are amazing at mapping a room. To the point that someone could move your keys or wallet, and while your human brain may not notice, Hololens would…

Microsoft envisions uses for augmented reality beyond digital pets and reading messages overlaid onto your environment — namely, finding your lost keys…

The idea here seems to be using augmented reality — via a headset, no doubt — along with a camera built into the device to identify trackable objects, and to point them out to the user whenever necessary. One such item is a wallet — the AR system could identify the wallet in a room, then keep track of its location, pointing the user toward it if needed.

Source: Microsoft patent details using augmented reality to find lost keys – SlashGear

I watch patents like these closely but take them more directionally than literally.

However, the idea of using technology to augment the fallible human brain for something like finding lost keys or a wallet?

Sign me up.

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It’s going to be like PokemonGo, but all the time

November 8, 2016 — Leave a comment

Apple isn’t behind Microsoft and Hololens. They are just being Apple. Moving slowly and deliberately toward something huge. And there’s a reason Tim Cook has brought up mixed reality in every major interview recently.

Here’s some tech news that backs this up…

Apple on Tuesday was granted a patent detailing an augmented reality mapping system that harnesses iPhone hardware to overlay visual enhancements onto live video, lending credence to recent rumors suggesting the company plans to implement an iOS-based AR strategy in the near future.

Source: Apple patents augmented reality mapping system for iPhone

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