New World Order: Augmented Reality - The Players

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Augmented Reality is gonna be big. Bigger than smart phones and more revolutionary too. If you read my last blog post you now have an idea what AR is. And if you're a 'technophile' like me, your mind is probably extrapolating the possibilities.

But AR is not quite there yet - its close though. There's a lot of really intelligent engineers, scientist and product designers working hard to make it a reality.

Sadly (LOL) we may never know most of there names, but lets look at the companies rolling the dice and hoping to win big.

Google

Yes, the ubiquitous Big Brother-esque Google was one of the first players to see the potential of AR. Their first roll of the dice was with Google Glass, who could forget that awesome promo video. . . . reality however turned out to be quite un-awesome. It was un-attractive, had no clear day to day use cases, the gestures made people around you uncomfortable and it seemed to be in Beta-phase for a long time.



Google is bouncing back though -by spreading its risk over several projects. It has introduced Tango which has transitioned to ARcore, and they've invested in Magic Leap (more on them later) while attempting to revamp Glass with a new focus.

Their Tango platform is available for mobile devices with specialized hardware i.e cameras, gyroscope etc to enable the device phone be aware of its position in 3D space. With few use cases, apps and needing mobile devices with specially developed hardware, Tango has only seen use in peculiar enterprise circumstances - museums and the International Space Station. Google quietly retired Tango last year, replacing it with ARCore which does not require specialized hardware.








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Vuzix Blade

AR on mobile phones -> wearable AR glasses -> AR embedded in us. Thats the general development pattern technologists believe AR will follow. Vuzix have jumped straight to phase two with their Blade AR glasses.

Using Amazon's Alexa to power its AI has allowed Vuzix to focus on the hardware. Aesthetically the Vuzix Blade is best and most practical looking AR glasses I've come across.

Right now they basically function like a wearable smart phone, but need Wifi or Bluetooth connectivity to a phone to perform online functionality like check email, social media etc.




Intel Vaunt 

Intel's Vaunt AR glasses are the most - every day looking AR glasses on the market (I mean this as a compliment). Still in in the prototype stage there way less bulky than the Vuzix Blade. Intel like Vuzix see their role as hardware builders who will enable developers to build creative apps on top.

Intel have a long history building micro processors, so miniaturizing hardware is second nature. Definitively a promising venture.



Magic Leap

 You've probably never heard of Magic Leap, but to industry insiders Magic Leap and their full stack 'Mixed Reality' represent amazing potential for AR. They've been working quietly on the full stack of hardware tech, new spatial computing technologies, AI, use cases and applications - judging by their promo video.

Their work was attracted attention and a tonne of money - Google, Alibaba, J.P Morgan have all shelled out close to $2Billion dollars in funding/investment and its been eight years before a prototype has been shown. Either the emperor has no clothes or all these really smart investors are on to something.

Magic Leap will either be an astronomical success or and abysmal failure - my opinion. 




AR Kit

Apple popularized the smart phone in the early 2000's, they would never be left out of this new wave. Apple were early to market with a working Augmented Reality platform they called ARKit. The early apps caught our attention and many of you may have used them without realizing you were using early AR on mobile. Ikea's decor app and PokemonGo spring to mind. Apple being apple, my guess is there working on more specialized platforms for ARKit i.e. AR glasses. Needless to say they'll snuggly into the Apple ecosystem.



If you know of any other players in the AR space, drop us a comment - I enjoy getting feedback from you.

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