The rover Perseverance touched the surface of Mars, and so can you - in AR. And take a selfie with it.
National Geographic and Bacardi launch epic AR filters for social media, a new device for gesture control enters the game, and hints of upcoming AR glasses unveil.
Read on!
National Geographic's new AR experience on Instagram allows viewers to become one with NASA's Perseverance rover as it searches for ancient signs of life on Mars. National Geographic teamed up with NASA to ensure that the experience is as authentic as possible.
One day humans could make it to Mars, but for now, this is about as close as you can get. With the AR filter, the user will see through the rover's eyes, observing its first panorama, can operate its extremities, and take a selfie with it.
To become one with the Perseverance, go to the Instagram camera and search for Mars AR filter, or go to Nat Geo's profile and tap to the Filters tab.
Bacardi Rum has teamed with Snapchat to launch a dance lens. The activation is an extension of Bacardi's Conga Feat. You campaign.
After scanning the Bacardi Snapcode, users are guided through a series of dance moves accompanied by AR animations. As the user completes the dance moves, they'll unlock additional instrumental layers of Conga. Finally, they can share the performance on their Snapchat Story.
Bacardi is the first alcoholic beverage brand to officially partner with Snapchat on its AR 3D Full Body-Tracking technology.
FinchRing is a first-of-its-kind wearable that brings intuitive, hands-free gesture control on AR and MR headsets and other platforms, including laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
FinchRing gives the users limitless, fluid 360- degree and 3D movement when moving virtual objects outside their field of view. To achieve this, FinchRing uses a combination of a touchpad, force sensor, and haptic feedback.
Finchring also announced a partnership with Nreal. The collaboration gives game-changing functionality to the Nreal Light MR glasses.
Luxexcel, a company specializing in 3D printed prescription lenses, announced a partnership with waveguides developer WaveOptics to develop a line of AR smart glasses.
The two companies are promising an AR headset that is more streamlined than existing solutions.
"About 70% of the adult world population today need vision correction to see their best. A single device that integrates both their prescription requirements and smart technologies, is a requirement in adoption of smart glasses by the masses," said Guido Groet, Chief Strategy Officer at Luxexcel.
The AR smart glasses will weigh 50% less than existing headsets while at the same time providing high-quality AR experiences at a wide FOV. As a bonus, the headset will be dustproof and waterproof.
The companies plan on showing a prototype of their glasses during the SPIE AR, VR, MR conference this March. We can expect samples to arrive in Q2 of 2021.
That's all for now, see you next time!