The AR Roundup: August 2018

Here’s what you missed in augmented reality for August 2018

Numbers

• XRDC VR/AR Innovation Report finds 29.79% of developers are building ARCore apps while 24.48% are using ARKit (Gamasutra)
• XR analyst firm, Digi-Capital, released new charts and data on AR & VR based on its newly launched analytics platform in a recent TechCrunch article. Among the stats in this post, Digi-Capital states that more than $5 billion has been invested in XR in the last 12 months and that mobile AR is the front-runner platform with more than 900 million installed base expected by the end of the year.
• “Services, AR, and Apple Car will create Apple’s next trillion-dollar market cap,” analyst Ming-Chi Kuo wrote in the research note. Kuo predicts that Apple could release augmented reality glasses by 2020 and a car three to five years after that.
• The augmented reality (AR) revolution is coming: 86% of industrial enterprises expect their customer-focused AR projects to go live in the next 12 months, according to a recent report from PTC.

Money

Big News

• Niantic acquires Seismic Games (TechCrunch)
• University Of Hull Opens World First Mixed Reality Accelerator (Forbes)

Hardware

• HoloSuit gets funding from Singapore, India investors (VCCircle)
• Naked Labs raises $14M Series A led by Founders Fund for its 3D body scanning mirror (TechCrunch)
• Mantis Vision Raises $55 Million, Announces Chinese Venture (CTECH)
• WRLDS Announces raises $600K Round of Seed Funding (Virtual-Strategy)
• Avegant Lands $12 Million in Funding for Augmented Reality Displays (Next Reality)

Platforms & Tools

• Plnar Raises $3.9M in Series A Funding (FINSMES)
• Enterprise barcode scanner startup Scandit raises a $30 million Series B (TechCrunch)
• AnyVision AI startup locks in $28M for its body and facial recognition tech (TechCrunch)
• Jido Maps raises $2.1M seed round for its “save button” for the digital AR world (TechCrunch)
• Canadian 3D computer vision startup AIRY3D gathers $10 mln Series A (PE Hub)
• Computer Vision IoT Platform Perch Raises $1.7m (FINSMES)
• AR startup Ubiquity6 lands $27M Series B to build a more user-friendly augmented reality (TechCrunch)
• Verses raises $6 million to set-up blockchain based property rights in augmented reality (VentureBeat)

Applications & Solutions

• XTend raises money to gamify real-life activities with drones and augmented reality (VR Focus)

News

Hardware

• Magic Leap One creator edition goes on sale (TechCrunch)
• Epson Launches Moverio BT-35E Smart Glasses (VR Focus)

Platform & Tools

• Facebook builds its own AR games for Messenger video chat (TechCrunch)
• Google is adding ARCore support to the Chromebook Tab 10 with Classroom updates (The Verge)
• Vuzix Reveal That Their M300 AR Smart Glasses Now Support TechSight (VRFocus)
• Unreal Engine 4.20 Released With Robust AR Support (VR Focus)
• Digi-Capital launches AR-VR analytics platform (Venturebeat)
• Google’s ARCore Measure app picks up UI tweaks, fast copy button in 2.1 update (9to5 Google)
• ARCore 1.4 Update, Bringing Passthrough Camera Auto-Focus & Wider Availability (Next Reality)

Applications & Solutions

• Sigur Rós and Magic Leap Release New Mixed-Reality Experience Tónandi (Pitchfork)
• The New York Times Bringing Its Content To Magic Leap One Creator Edition (VR Focus)
• Hands-on: Magic Leap’s Screens app featuring the NBA (Next Reality)
• Alibaba to Launch Taobao Buy, A New Mixed Reality Shopping Experience (Pandaily)
• Snapchat Adds Speech-Activated Lenses to Its Augmented Reality Capabilities (Next Reality)
• Intel Is Bringing the Smithsonian’s Burning Man Exhibit to Snapchat Using AR (AdWeek)
• Two Bit Circus is opening its first (virtual) big top in Los Angeles (TechCrunch)
• Axel Springer launches AR Sports feature in newspapers (Bloomberg)
• Nickeodeon AR app makes slime fly out of your TV (CNET)
• Nickelodeon Developing Augmented Reality Series ‘Meet The Voxels’ (Deadline)
• USA Today brings AR to its mobile app (Mobile Marketer)
• Amazon updates iPhone app with AR feature to identify small parts (The Verge)
• San Francisco 49ers and MYXR Join Forces on First-Of-Its-Kind Augmented Reality Partnership (49ers)
• Cisco lays groundwork for augmented reality in Cisco Webex app (Tech Target)
• South Korean telecom KT tries on mobile AR shopping (Mobile Marketer)
• Roy Orbison hologram concert scheduled for Toronto engagement this November (CBC)
• Google Goggles updated to redirect users to Google Lens (The Verge)
• DiDi unveils voice assistant, AR navigation programs (China.org.cn)
• Alder Hey Children’s Hospital Takes HoloLens to the Operating Theatre (VR Focus)

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