This week's AR news is coming in a day early because it is the midsummer celebration weekend here in Finland. Sunshine all day round!
So here are updates to AR wearables, Bose dropping out of AR, Amazon developing social distancing tech, and Pokémon Go building a 3D scan of the world.
Microsoft has opened sales of HoloLens 2 to anyone with the cash on hand - with the price of $3,500.
The new HoloLens 2 comes in with several features not present in the first, 2015-era HoloLens. The most notable one is the eye-tracking. Eye-tracking lets users select UI elements by merely looking at them but also enables developers to know where a user is looking to optimize AR apps better by understanding user behavior.
Microsoft is selling the HoloLens 2 directly online. Go get yours now!
Bose's AR development fell short of expectations. It worked well for "specific use cases" but wasn't very good for "broad, daily use," a Bose spokesperson said. Bose's AR technology revolved around positional audio.
Bose's recent financial troubles didn't help the AR effort. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, Bose said it would close many of its retail stores, and its CEO left at the start of 2020.
AR is challenging, and even well-known names like Bose aren't guaranteed to have hits.
It's hard to know exactly how close you can get to someone without breaking the social distance rules. Amazon has made it easy for warehouse workers with augmented reality.
Social distancing isn't always natural, so Amazon's team set out to use AR to create a magic-mirror-like tool to help associates see their physical distancing from others.
'Distance Assistant' provides employees with live feedback on social distancing through a 50-inch monitor, a camera, and a local computing device. People who are 6 feet apart are highlighted with green circles, while those closer together are highlighted with red ones.
In their blog, Amazon states that "We are also beginning the process to open source the software and AI behind this innovation so that anyone can create their own Distance Assistant."
Pokémon Go is striving to take AR to a whole new level. A new feature within the game is on a mission to get players to create and upload 3D scans of real-world locations.
The 3-D scans collected are intended to create new possibilities in the game, but they will also give AR developers an advantage over competitors. A system that can recognize 3D environments around the world makes it easier for developers to create shared AR experiences and environments that "exist" even when the user logs off.
Could this be the first step towards the AR Cloud?
That's it for this week's news. I hope you enjoyed it! We wish you all a warm midsummer weekend, regardless of where you are! 😎☀️
Oh, and if you're interested in upgrading your skillset with AR, sign up for our webinar! In the free webinar you will: