Wearables startup Meta has revealed its latest headset, the MetaPro, a consumer version of its Meta 1 developer device that amps up Google Glass by overlaying full digital graphics over the real world. Expected to ship in June 2014, for the not-inconsiderable price of $3,000, the MetaPro glasses look far less geeky than their dev-focused […]
Vuzix has launched a new rival to Google’s Glass, the Vuzix M2000AR HMD, using new Waveguide optics built in partnership with Nokia. Targeted at industrial users, though likely to spawn a consumer version soon, the M2000AR has a 720p display integrated into its monocular lens along with a 1080p camera, integrated head tracking, and a […]
Today the first DLC for the augmented reality game The Playroom built-in to the PlayStation 4 has appeared with the name Toy Maker. This update to The Playroom allows the user to take their smartphone or tablet and create their own toys to toss into their virtual world. With the PlayStation 4 camera, the user’s […]
I find that receiving too much information while I’m driving can be a major distraction, but I guess that Nissan thinks that Japanese drivers can handle it. They’ve just unveiled their own augmented reality glasses which appear to compete directly with Google Glass.
It’s expected that Nissan’s 3E glasses will connect to the Internet, allowing you to overlay real-time information on the heads-up display. You will be able to record projected images, communicate with your friends on Facebook, and more! Tipsters believe that the AR headset will use low-energy Bluetooth in order to save power, and will be able to pair up with a smartphone.
Assuming these ever make it past the concept phase, I’m pretty sure there will be a lot more accidents on Japanese roads, unless of course Japanese cars start driving themselves.
[via Jalopnik]
You might get a chance to get your hands on Google Glass sooner than you expected. The Financial Times is reporting that Google is making "tens of thousands" more pairs in the next few months.
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Shopping can turn into such a chore sometimes. It’s great and all if you have unlimited funds to spend, but shopping turns into an unending quest of deals, sales, and coupons if you’re working on a tight budget.
Augmented Pixels wanted to give shopping and bargain hunting a more enjoyable spin, though, so they came up with WarBot, which is an app that turns shopping into an action-packed first-person shooter.
What you’re supposed to do is fire up the app and point it towards an item that you’re interested in. Once the tablet recognizes the packaging, it launches an augmented reality first-person shooter game. If you win, then you get a discount on that item. If you lose, well, you’re free to try again.
Vitaliy Goncharuk, CEO of Augmented Pixels, explains: “It’s getting more and more challenging for brands to stand out from the competition to attract and keep customers’ attention and love. Augmented reality has proved to be one of the most effective ways to engage customers at the point of sale.”
It’s mighty clever of them to try to do this through a game. What do you think?
[via Dvice]
ORA, a wearable computer similar to Google Glass, was showcased today at GMIC San Francisco, the largest mobile tech conference in Silicon Valley. Optinvent, the manufacturer behind the wearable, is billing the headwear as “the only true AR smart glass” on the market. ORA doesn’t shy from looking clunky, embracing its necessary bulk with bold […]
You may think that the United States is full of weird items everywhere you look, but it all truly pales in comparison to these 10 Russian oddities.
Over the years we’ve seen a variety of concepts for portable augmented reality devices, but it seems as if Google Glass opened the floodgates for AR devices that are worn like eyeglasses. Case in point, the Japanese telecommunications company NTT Docomo, which recently showed off not one but four ideas for glasses with an AR interface.
The first interface that NTT Docomo showed off was a projector that mirrored the display of a connected mobile device. The player appears to float in front of you and you can still see what’s in front of you in the background of the window. That in itself isn’t particularly revolutionary or practical, but when paired with sensors it turns into a really neat product. For instance, Docomo imagines a combination of a head-mounted camera and a face recognition app that shows you information about the people you meet.
The other two concepts were more exciting: the real-time translator that I talked about a couple of weeks ago and an external projector that can detect the size of the object that you’re using as a display surface. When used with a ring-shaped accessory, the glasses will also be able to detect your hand, allowing you to manipulate the projection as if it were a touchscreen.
There you have it, another exciting look at the future of augmented reality, and perhaps fashion as well. Out of all the concepts I’ve seen, the one I really want to own would still be the Sixthsense concept from back in 2009. I wouldn’t mind looking like a dork for that.
[via DigInfo TV via BitRebels]
Wikitude Studio has received an upgrade which brings a number of interesting features, such as a new transparent background for text augmentations, zooming ability for target images and a number of tweaks to the user interface. One major addition is video augmentations. For those who don’t know, Wikitude Studio is an online augmented reality tool that allows users to create, manage and publish augmented reality experiences.
So Wikitude Studio users can now add video augmentations in their AR projects. Adding videos is actually quite easy, users have to insert the appropriate URL for the video and match the file with a source trigger. Wikitude Studio is capable of working with self-hosted videos or videos that are hosted on Vimeo and YouTube, by default. Apart from this, the static canvas has been replaced with a zoomable canvas in Studio, which allows users to zoom in and out of their target image. This increases ease of use, particularly when users are working with large target images such as panoramas. With the addition of a transparent background option for text augmentations, users are now free to insert text anywhere they want while giving only minimal consideration to the background. The updated Wikitude Studio is now live, updated and ready to use.
Wikitude Studio Upgrade Brings Video Augmentations original content from Ubergizmo. 
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