The AR Roundup: November 2018

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

Source: Focals by North

Numbers

• Study by Nielsen + Unity from test of AR ads by QSR restaurants served in mobile gaming apps: brand awareness lifted 104%, intent to visit in next week increased 180%. That’s 11x benchmark of 9.7% for awareness & 33x higher than 5.5% benchmark for intent. (AdWeek)
• Snapchat says that “More than 350,000 virtual “experiences” have been created in the past year” with AR Studio. (Digiday)
• After pilot tests across multiple locations, Colgate-Palmolive and RealWear just announced that they’re bringing HMT-1 wearables into 20 manufacturing facilities in 11 countries. (VentureBeat)
• Best-in-class companies using augmented reality perform, on average, 25% better than their peers across performance measurements, including regulatory and SLA compliance according to new stats published by PTC. (PTC)

Featured Video: AR Popstars Take the Stage

League of Legends in-game band K/DA delivers a debut performance onstage using augmented reality during the big League of Legends 2018 World Finals Opening Ceremony.

Money

Big News

• Microsoft locates first VR/MR incubator in China’s Jiangxi (China.org)
• New York City RLab launches with accelerator program for AR/VR startups (Adweek)
• Lyft acquires AR startup Blue Vision for $100M (The Verge)

Hardware

• Korean Startup LetinAR Raises $3.6m for its AR Optics (VR Focus)
• Milpitas ‘smart glass’ maker gets $1.1B from Saudi-backed SoftBank Vision Fund (Silicon Valley Journal)

Platforms & Tools

• EyeSight scores $15M to use computer vision to combat driver distraction (TechCrunch)
• Computer vision firm NextVPU raises $28m Series A (Dell Street Asia)
• Spatial raises $8 million for augmented reality collaboration platform (VentureBeat)
• Stockholm-based Resolution Games nabs $7.5M to pioneer AR/VR experiences (TechCrunch)
• Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, raises $1.25 billion (TechCrunch)

Applications & Solutions

• Onedome raises $3.3 million for AR experience The Unreal Garden (VentureBeat)

Featured Tweet: A Dash of Augmented Reality

Avraham Raskin is back with another concept video showcasing a quirky IoT and AR integration to save you in a “pinch”

News

Hardware

• Thalmic Labs rebrands as North and debuts Focals smartglasses (The Verge)
• Vuzix will sell Blade AR glasses in November, retail bundle in 2019 (VentureBeat)
• Tencent made smart glasses that look like Snap Spectacles (The Verge)
• HoloLens Update Brings Display Mirroring & Quick Actions Menu for Routine Tasks (Next Reality)

Platform & Tools

• Unity now serving mobile AR ads (Forbes)
• SpatialOS GDK Is Now Available For Unreal Engine (VR Focus)
• Snapchat Lens Studio Adds New Segmentation Templates (Next Reality)
• Camera IQ Launches Solution For Programmatic AR Advertising (VR Focus)
• WakingApp launches support for Vuzix Smart Glasses with ENTiTi Content Creator AR Platform (Digital Journal)
• Upskill Expand Skylight Early Access Programme (VR Focus)
• Augumenta launches mixed reality gesture recognition toolkit for HoloLens (Silicon Angle)
• TeamViewer Announces New Augmented Reality Capabilities (VR Focus)
• Vimeo adds a channel exclusively for holograms (TechCrunch)
• Samsung Unveils Its Project Whare AR Cloud Service & Wacom Partnership for AR Creations (Next Reality)

Applications & Solutions

• Snapchat’s new Camera desktop camera app brings AR masks to Twitch, Skype and more (TechCrunch)
• Niantic’s massive Ingress reboot launches today on iOS and Android (The Verge)
• Foot Locker, Nike Launch AR Scavenger Hunt (Mediapost)
• Adidas is using augmented reality to sell limited-edition sneakers (Engadget)
• NBA’s Dallas Mavericks unveils AR mural with ‘larger than life’ slam dunk (Marketing Dive)
• Walmart adds an AR scanner to its iOS app for product comparisons (TechCrunch)
• YC-backed Observant uses the iPhone’s infrared depth sensors to analyze user emotions (TechCrunch)
• H&M Creates Augmented Reality Experience for Moschino Collab (WWD)
• Google Lens comes to the mobile web in Google Images (9to5 Google)
• JetBlue promotes its new route with AR (Mobile Marketer)
• Onedome Opens ‘Unreal Garden’ Augmented Reality Art Exhibit in San Francisco (Variety)

Featured Poll: Would you wear a camera?

Featured Quote:

“While the last 10 years have been about something called social media marketing, the next 10 years are going to be about this new thing called ‘camera marketing,’ and this is really about the camera as an ad placement,” said Carolina Arguelles, product marketing lead for Snapchat.” (Digiday)

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