fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
AR lenses for Christmas
By: Pushpendra Prakash Sagar
Tags: Appreciation, Christmas, Ar Lenses, Augmented Reality, Festive Ar Experience

This is a Christmas special post listing 3 AR lenses to have fun with, in this holidays season.

When the season comes you have special stickers for Facebook, WhatsApp but…

SnapChat apart from stickers has a collection of AR lenses which is termed as World Lenses.

This the one I am talking about. Here you have a mix variety of Augmented Reality fun experiences and in this post we bring you 3 best suitable AR Lenses for Christmas spirit.

1- Cookie Dance

Here you will see Christmas special cookies (gingerbread… man shaped cookies) dancing in a festive parade. Use your rear phone camera and see the fun cookies dancing on your real world surroundings.

Here is the direct link to the lens:

2- Winter Decorations

This lens has a very soothing festive music along with well rendered Christmas Tree and Decorations. This is surely going to turn your room into a Christmas Celebrations.

Here is the direct link to the lens:

3- Night Magic

This a classic movie type lens where your room will turn into a Christmas night sky with a large moon shining and Santa Claus fly around dropping gift boxes in his deep laud voice showering good wishes.

Here is the direct link to the lens:

If you want see these lenses in action… here is a quick video capturing the experience.

⭐ So enjoy the holidays. ⭐

🌲 Merry Christmas to everyone! 🌲
Augmented reality, try shoes virtually anywhere — Score Me More
By: Score Me More
Tags: Augmented Reality Company, Augmented Reality India, Augmented Reality App, Augmented Reality, Augmented Reality Games

What is Augmented Reality?

Augmented reality ( AR) is an interactive experience of a real-world environment. It uses computer-generated perceptual information, sometimes across multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory, and olfactory.

Read the full article here https://scorememore.com
Merry Christmas in AR! 🎄
Tags: Merry Christmas, Christmas, Augmented Reality, Holidays, Echoar

Scan this QR code with your phone or go directly to

https://go.echoar.xyz/kQv5

with your phone browser to setup the Christmas tree!

Sign up to the echoAR platform for free to create this yourself!
Create AR Mask for Happy New Year
By: Unity Tutorials, Unity Assets Makaka Games
Tags: Mobile, AR, Masks, Augmented Reality, Apps

All you need is Game Dev with Unity :) https://makaka.org
Reviewing the year: our big moments from 2020
By: Angelica Soroka
Tags: 2020 Review, Achivements, Team, Sketchar, Augmented Reality

Reviewing the year: our big moments from 2020

2020 has no doubt been challenging and strange. But, against that bleak background, it did provide an opportunity for us to shine. So to get even more inspired, we’re looking back at some of our favorite moments from the past year.

Insights

We realized the importance of not only transforming our global standing but achieving the internal change.

2020 proved to be a turning point for us in terms of understanding where SketchAR’s power lies and who exactly we can offer our product to. Ultimately, we chose to turn ordinary people into creators with a unique set of tools and entertainment component — 70% of our users are beginners in art-making or those who have never created anything before. Each tool is exceptional and only available on our app.

Product updates

We committed some great modifications to make the user experience smoother and more enjoyable.

In May, we ran the very first version of our creator platform, where people can share their art, as well as compete on a weekly basis for the Creator of the Week title (the best work is displayed on the main screen).

In August, we introduced the starter version of the onboarding and customized system — the way the app finds out the user level and recommends relevant content. This remains a top priority for the upcoming year.

In October, we released AI Portraits, an awesome feature for turning photos into illustrations (from comics to anime).

In December, we presented AR masks in collaboration with Snapchat as part of the Yellow Collabs Program.

Finally, at the end of the year, we launched mini-games to develop the cognitive and creative abilities of our users (e.g. to distinguish between color shades) and give them some meditation and anti-stress effect, too.

Partnerships

SketchAR was honored to enter the third class of startups in Yellow — Snap’s accelerator for entrepreneurs working at the intersection of content creation and technology. Through our participation in the 14-week program, we received $150,000 in equity funding, mentorship from industry veterans inside and outside of Snap, networking events with media luminaries, and commercial support.

Mentions

SketchAR was included in the book on augmented reality, which had been created over seven years by Chetankumar G Shetty, a tech enthusiast with a special interest in AR.

SketchAR’s founder and CEO Andrey Drobitko took part as a speaker in the 9th International Open Innovations Forum in Moscow.

SketchAR was recognized as one of Europe’s leading AI companies in 2020.

Numbers

We achieved significant growth in various areas:

· App — The number of active users tripled,+2 million new ones in 2020 and over 4 million in total.

· TikTok — Getting started in February 2020, we now have almost 500 thousand subscribers with 65 million views and 5.5 million likes.

· Team — The existing 9 problem-solvers were joined by a new backend developer, artist, editor & writer, and creative content manager.
Top 5 eCommerce Trends to Follow in 2021
By: Jane Vishnova
Tags: Ecommerce Trends, Web Development, Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Ecommerce

The eCommerce industry has taken a huge step forward in 2020, as this year taught many lessons. All in all, 2020 was an enabling environment for further improvement. And now it’s time to look forward and keep on expanding the eCommerce comfort zone.

Let’s see what tendencies online retailers should necessarily pay attention to in the coming year to be prepared for any eventuality:

Omnichannel business as a new standard.

As different surveys report, companies, which are able to provide their clients with omnichannel experience, manage to retain nearly 89% of their customers.

While companies that don’t focus on omnichannel strategy have customer retention rate of 33%.

Results are evident;

AI and AR as powerful instruments to offer great customer journey.

Digital retailers are going to invest $7,3 billion in Artificial Intelligence by 2022. And over 120 000 eCommerce websites will be using Augmented Reality technologies by 2022.

Artificial Intelligence serves to investigate user behaviour and, applying this information, subsequently treat them individually.

Augmented Reality is one more technological marvel.

As products, offered in online shops, cannot be fully assessed, Augmented Reality’s role is to simplify a process of online-shopping and let users experience digital content just like they experience the real world. Sounds amazing!

Dynamic Pricing Adoption.

Optimal cost determination matters a lot in retail business, as a correctly set price has a straight impact on a company’s profit.

In these cases dynamic pricing software can come to assist, to analyze your competitors pricing scale, market demand and form an optimal cost for your item;

Mobile eCommerce.

Сustomers have started to make online purchases via mobile devices a long time ago, and eCommerce entrepreneurs can’t ignore this fact.

Mobile-friendliness is favored by consumers, so if your website is not mobile-friendly, there is a high probability your client may interrupt his online journey without completing a purchase.

You can check if your online store is responsive enough, using Google Mobile-Friendly Test;

Voice Commerce.

Voice assistant is a new superstar on the eCommerce arena.

Voice commerce sales are expected to reach up to $40 billion by 2022. Give a voice to your business, and it will help not only to make online shopping more convenient, but also to get closer to your target audience.

Chatbots or voice messaging tools is one more opportunity to monitor users’ preferences and time, in which they are engaged the most actively.

To sum up.

All mentioned above methods are indeed efficient to achieve the only goal: to bring your eCommerce business potential into play.
Manfaat Augmented Reality Untuk Bisnis
Tags: Robot, Robot Ar, AR, Augmented Reality, Bisnis

vGIS Inc.

Welcome to the official YouTube channel of vGIS Inc. (https://www.vGIS.io) - the #1 augmented reality solution for BIM…
A new take on wearable controllers from Microsoft Research
Tags: Virtual Reality, Spatial Computing, Augmented Reality, Haptics

Researchers, Eyal Ofek, Mar Gonzalez, and Mike Sinclair, from Microsoft Researched released the first iteration of PIVOT, a wrist-worn haptic device that renders virtual objects into the user’s hand on demand.

Its simple design comprises a single actuated joint that pivots a haptic handle into and out of the user’s hand, rendering the haptic sensations of grasping, catching, or throwing an object — anywhere in space.

Unlike existing hand-held haptic devices and haptic gloves, PIVOT leaves the user’s palm free when not in use, allowing users to make unencumbered use of their hand.

PIVOT also enables rendering forces acting on the held virtual objects, such as gravity, inertia, or air-drag, by actively driving its motor while the user is firmly holding the handle.

When wearing a PIVOT device on both hands, they can add haptic feedback to bimanual interaction, such as lifting larger objects. In our user study, participants (n=12) evaluated the realism of grabbing and releasing objects of different shape and size with mean score 5.19 on a scale from 1 to 7, rated the ability to catch and throw balls in different directions with different velocities (mean=5.5), and verified the ability to render the comparative weight of held objects with 87% accuracy for ~100g increments.

H/T Microsoft & Knoxlabs

Things #VR, #AR, & #Magic
The 10 Best Immersive (AR/VR) Storytelling Experiences of 2020
By: Adam Varga
Tags: Immersive, Storytelling, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality

Studio Syro

We’re a new VR animation studio with a focus on using VR tools like Quill to change the way we work and tell exciting…
Quick Introduction to Image Tracking using AR Foundation
By: Ansh Gaikwad
Tags: Tech, Augmented Reality, Technology, Programming, Unity

Implementing Image Tracking

Let's go to AR Session Origin and add the “AR Tracked Image Manager” Script after clicking the add components button.

Adding AR Tracked Image Manager Script

So, here we will be having three components:

Reference Library: The images which you want to track. Max number of moving images: As the name suggests. Tracked Image Prefab: The prefab to display after the image is tracked.

So, as we have seen that we have to provide a Reference Library to the AR Tracked Image Manager Script, we will go ahead and create one.

Creating a Reference Image Library

After creating the Reference Image Library we should add an Image which will be the used for tracking. You can get some images from here.

Note: You can add as many images as you want just click on Add Images and drag the image inside it.

Adding Image to the Reference Image Library

Great, now as our Reference Image Library is ready, we will be now needing the Tracked Image Prefab.

Now, as we are going to implement a video poster we will create a Cube Prefab and then add the video player to it. You can get some videos from here. So, let's do it.

Step 1: Create a 3D Object Cube and Set up the dimensions.

Step 2: Drag it down to our Assets folder and then add the video player to it.

Step 3: You may enable “loop” and disable “wait for first frame” as per your wish.

Well now, we have the prefab set up.

Setting up the Tracked Image Prefab

Now, drag your Reference Image Library and your Tracked Image Prefab inside the AR Tracked Image Manager Script of the AR Session Origin.

AR Session Origin

Great now, our AR app is ready to build and run. Head over to build settings and build and run your app.

Note: Make sure you have connected your Android device with the USB cable and have USB debugging enabled. If you are facing any issues, you can follow the steps given here.
How Augmented Reality Will Improve Your Next Travel Experience
Tags: Traveling, AR, Augmented Reality, Echoar, Future Technology

Not too long ago Pokémon GO sent people to the streets to capture collectible characters, with many real live locations serving as Pokéspots for players to visit. This is just one example of how augmented reality (AR) can change the way we interact with our urban environment, our cities and the physical world around us. AR is going to have an inevitable impact on the future of the travel and hospitality industries. Already, AR is used to both enrich and simplify your travel experience by impacting where you stay, how you travel, what you eat, and how you enjoy different attractions.

© MARS Storytelling

Traveling is much about exploring new places, sightseeing, and appreciating what the destination has to offer. AR can enhance these experiences in various ways. For example, MARS Storytelling, makes historical sites and visitor centers come alive with personalized AR experiences, making the visit more engaging. Berlin-based Zaubar enables city tours powered by AR that immerse you in 3D learning experiences about a city’s past and present. Asbury Park in New Jersey also offers its own unique and free-of-charge AR tour that reconstructs key historic landmarks in AR on the Asbury Park boardwalk.

Trending AR VR Articles:

© Zaubar UG

Boulevard and MuseoPic help museums create immersive and interactive art, architecture, and historical experiences with AR, while a number of museums have their own AR apps to showcase their exhibitions and better engage their patrons. The Smithsonian’s National History Museum in Washington, D.C. is embracing AR for skeletons in the museum’s Bone Hall. Users can download the Skin & Bones app and use their smartphone to recreate animals based on the skeletal structure. The American Museum of Natural History in New York also launched its own Explorer app with AR functionality.
3D Filters and Animoji: Can AR play a greater role in a social media experience?
By: Abhilash Khalkar
Tags: Digital Marketing, Digital, Augmented Reality, Social Media, Social Media Marketing

Image Source: Esearchlogix

Augmented reality (AR) has been impacting social media for years now. AR technology with frequent introductions of its new versions has been taking over popular social media platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook. Marketers and brands across the world are trying to figure out how AR technology can continue to create an impression via social media.

Snapchat and Instagram are not alone in the race to incorporate AR technology to enhance the user experience, Facebook too has joined the league. Facebook recently launched the Facebook AR Studio, which serves as a platform for artists and developers who wish to build interactive camera experiences via Facebook. The initiative is expected to be scaled up and given access to other Facebook products such as Messenger, to come up with interesting 3D filters and Animoji.

Taking the involvement of AR technology in social media platforms, the answer seems to be simple: AR will go on to become a huge part of social media and our lives over the next few years.

Marketers and brands across industries will rejoice this advent of AR into social media and our lives, much more than anyone else. This is because, AR will provide them with novel ways to promote their products or services in engaging, exciting, and unique ways.
Augmented Reality Infographic: Stats, Facts, and Trends for 2021 and Beyond
Tags: Infographics, Business, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Marketing

At Elevux we strive to elevate humans to their highest potential through brilliant design & integrated experiences. Creating unforgettable AR/VR/XR experiences!
Top 17 Augmented Reality Statistics, Facts and Trends for 2021 and Beyond
Tags: Business, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Technology, Marketing

Top 17 Augmented Reality Statistics, Facts and Trends for 2021 and Beyond

Virtual reality may still get bigger headlines and maintain a stronger hold on the imagination but augmented reality is actually proving to be a much more practical and realistic means of presenting the digital world. Most people use AR in their day to day and don’t even know it. Let’s take a look at the top 17 stats, trends, and facts for 2021 regarding augmented reality and its use.

Statistics provided by the “Augmented and Mixed Reality Market by Technology, Infrastructure, Devices, Solutions, Apps and Services in Industry Verticals 2020–2025” report from ResearchAndMarkets.com

Trending AR VR Articles:

Trend: 1.9 Billion people per month will use AR in 2022, and 3 billion devices worldwide are currently AR-enabled.

Stat: 71% of shoppers would prefer to go to stores with a “try-it-before-you-buy” AR experience. Retail is changing and going digital.

Stat: 7 out of 10 media planners want to use AR to boost advertising and customer engagement. The next stat will tell you why.

Stat: 10X marketers that employ AR see a 10x increase in engagement time, increasing retention and effectiveness. No brainer!

Trend: The Augmented Reality Market Forecast is Expected to Hit $90-$95 billion in revenue by 2023. The reason is AR can be applied to almost any industry.

Fact: Pokémon GO Has Been Downloaded Over 1 Billion Times! Let that sink in.

Stat: 70–75% of People Aged 16–44 Are Aware of AR. This is your target audience!

Stat: 88% of Mid-Sized Companies Are Already Using AR in Some Capacity. They get it and see the value of engagement. Big brands are right behind them.

Stat: Well over 2000+ AR Mobile Apps Are Already Available in the Apple app store blowing Android out the water. You probably have one on your phone now.

Fact: Microsoft’s First-Generation AR Glasses, HoloLens, Sold Over 50,000 Units. We are technically 3–5 years away from AR Glasses for the masses.

Fact: Microsoft owns more than 10,000 VR/AR patents. Yikes!

Fact: Over 2,800 AR-focused Startups Are Listed on Angel List!

Stat: Since the beginning of 2020, AR engagement has accelerated by almost 20%, with conversion rates pushing up by 90% among users who engage with AR as opposed to those who do not.

Trend: According to TechCrunch AR gaming has a better future on mobile than VR

Stat: Consumers are highly optimistic about emerging technologies, with 90% saying that AR is “fun.

Fact: You will soon be able to experience AR in Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Tesla, Toyota, and Volvo cars.

Trend: Mobile AR ad revenue is expected to exceed $2 billion by 2022

Creating AR Experience for B2B or B2C

To learn more about how you can create and use Augmented Reality for your business contact Elevux. We specialize in creating interactive virtual experiences and content specialized for AR VR and Web that capture and amaze your audiences. See more at www.elevux.com

Don’t forget to give us your 👏 !
Semakin Inovatif, Militer AS Buatkan Kacamata AR Untuk Anjing Pelacak
Tags: Kacamata Ar, Militer Amerika, Ar Glasses, Augmented Reality, Ar For Dogs

Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more

Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore
Pixelando #2: cinema, impacto social, tendências para 2021 e muito mais
By: Pedro Rocha
Tags: Realidade Aumentada, Marketing Digital, Futuro Da Educação, Design, Augmented Reality

Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more

Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore
Strategi Promosi Film Efektif Melalui Augmented Reality
Tags: Ar Sales Kit, Pandemi Covid 19, Strategi Pemasaran, Augmented Reality, Promosi Film

We’ll bring your business to the next level. | monsterar.net
Case study: Creating new digital experiences using AR to increase sales and customer engagement
By: Aryan Grover
Tags: Ui Ux Design, Travel, Case Study, Product Design, Augmented Reality

Solution

I will give you a tour of my case study and explain how Augmented Reality can be used to create new digital experiences and enhance the overall user experience at every stage from Pre-purchase experience to Post Purchase experience.

Brace yourself, your tour starts now

Experience 1: Pre-purchase

There are a lot of times when you are not sure if you really wanna go for a tour, don’t worry we will help you remove the uncertainty and give you a glimpse of what it feels to experience the tour right from the comfort of your phones.

We present to you the Headout Magic Door.

Simply place the magic door anywhere and walk towards it.

Look around and get a feel of the tour experience. Sound effects like Music, crowd, or even wind sounds can be added to give it a more realistic feel.

Have different views of the location ( day, night, events like the sound show, new year, etc)

“Jo dikhta hai, wahi bikta hai” (Loosely translated, it means — “what is visible, sells”.).Its the packaging of the tour that helps user make up their minds and help drive the sales up.

💸 How does this help the Business?
Animate 3D Subscription Launch
Tags: Animation, Game Development, Augmented Reality, Technology, Artificial Intelligence

Today we continue Animate 3D’s journey toward providing quality AI-driven motion capture to everyone! Driven by our Preceptive Motion Brain technology, with a significant boost in training performance powered by Intel, Animate 3D has proven to be a leading body tracking solution. We are announcing the official launch of our subscription plans that will go into effect today for all new users and are officially moving out of our Alpha and into General Availability!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAp1GEK4Y2o

All new users who sign up moving forward will be automatically put on our Freemium plan, which is completely free and does not require any payment information to use. The plan comes with 2 free animation minutes per month that reset monthly!

If you joined Animate 3D prior to today, that means you are an Early Adopter. As a thank you to our Early Adopters, we are providing Free and Unlimited service to you through 12/31/20!

HOLIDAY OFFER!

For all our users, new and old, if you upgrade to a paid plan by 12/31/20, we will provide unlimited animation minutes through 1/31/21. After that date, your account will switch over to the animation minute limit of your plan, listed on our pricing page at the link below.

We hope to see you in motion and look forward to launching some great features for you in early 2021!

Animate 3D Subscription Plans
Looking Back in Gratitude — BadVR’s year End Wrap Up, Pt. 2
Tags: Data Visualization, Data Science, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality

Stefanie Feldman (Project Manager)

BadVR Project Manager Stefanie Feldman in Temecula, CA, riding her 2020 worries off into the sunset! 🐴🌅 (Image Credit: Stefanie Feldman)

What are you grateful for professionally?

I’m grateful for all of the lessons I have learned during my entire professional journey — from my very first job out of college to this incredible opportunity with BadVR. Had I been told 5 years ago I would be a Product Manager at a virtual reality startup, I would have never believed it! I am forever grateful to BadVR, who opened a door for me at the right moment, when I was looking to pivot my career towards something that would give me room to grow professionally.

What are you grateful for personally?

2020 was a year in which I realized the things for which I am most grateful, more than ever! I’m grateful for the health of my family, friends, and myself during this terrifying pandemic. I’m grateful for all the support offered in a time of so much uncertainty. I’m grateful to have a job, a roof over my head, and to not worry about getting my next meal. I’m grateful for my loving, caring, supportive partner, Jorge, who has helped keep me sane while being quarantined together. I’m also grateful for our adorable dog, Maggie who we rescued this year.

Stefanie with her partner, Jorge, and their adorable dog Maggie. 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨🐶 #quaranteam! (Image Credit: Stefanie Feldman)

What are your hopes for 2021?

I hope for my family and friends to continue staying safe and healthy. I hope to continue to grow internally and professionally by staying open to new learning opportunities that expand my mind, body, and soul. I hope to soon be able to see and hug my family and friends together and to feel truly safe. I hope that there is a resolution soon to this terrible virus that has ruined so many lives.

What are your goals for BadVR in 2021?

I want to expand my current skill set and to find new tools that allow me to continue to be a valuable part in the growth and success of BadVR. I’d love to produce a more effective QA process and to implement it for current and future projects, helping to keep us focused and on track for success!

What achievement are you most proud of this year?

I’m most proud of helping the team complete the NSF I-Corps program, along with my teammates, Jad Meouchy and Will Semmes. During the program, we conducted over 100 research interviews via Zoom, phone, and in person. Due to the challenge of not being able to attend public events, I had to get creative in connecting with people. It challenged me greatly and allowed me to look objectively at our product and to connect with potential customers from an entirely new perspective. This is a skill set that will be valuable at BadVR and far beyond!
When learning becomes augmented
By: Onism Xr
Tags: Aviation Industry, Aviation Courses, Augmented Reality, Edtech, Training Courses

Technology and education have become one thing, there is no one without the other. With easy access to information using online tools, people tend to learn more. Whether they read something online or watch a video. But education isn’t stopping there. Augmented Reality (AR) has leveled up education and industrial training and is intending to be utilized to its fullest extent to reply to the world’s demand for learning.

Hololens and Japan Airlines Demo from Tech Event Youtube Page

Education and training shouldn’t be static anymore, it is hard to believe that videos are becoming a bit boring for some, hint during the global lockdown, Netflix had 16 million new sign-ups (source). So showing a video to your class or your trainees it becomes boring and they wouldn’t be as engaging as you might of hoped. AR gives you something else, it gives you the benefit of engagement. People will be more attentive to the information you are sharing.

1. GE

We have talked before about AR and classroom education, but how about industrial training. AR helps grasping the concepts you are sharing, AR doesn’t only stop in classrooms. Let’s say you are an airline and you have to train hundred employees because you are updating your fleet.

AR helps you in cutting down on costs, it will just be an app they download on their phones and you don’t need to pay for a trainer for the excessive hours they will spend teaching each group or books they need to read. And the training can be instantaneous and at anytime.

2. From nlr.org Anneke Nabben and Roy Arents (NLR) working on the concept for the AR maintenance training

There is no better way, to grab your phone, tablet or maybe even a pair of glasses, click and you can see the engine in real size, open it, see each component, with the information needed and even animations on how to replace a part and how the oil flows for instance, integrating simulations using AR is easy and seamless.

AR gives you a deep understanding on certain things. With using latest technological capabilities and working in harmony with the citizen of the 21st century, AR has achieved a milestone in improving focus and success rates (numbers in first post).

Augmented Reality is becoming the new stepping stone in the EdTech industry. Teaching and training with state of the art creation tools and having an infinite canvas gives you the opportunity to train using the latest technological methods in a seamless cost effective way.

Image source:

1. https://www.ge.com/news/reports/smart-specs-ok-glass-fix-jet-engine

2. https://www.nlr.org/article/x-lab-frontrunner-augmented-reality-mro-aerospace/
Day 16: An Introduction to Phase II
By: Brittany Lumanlan Martin
Tags: Gamedevhq, Typography, Graphic Design, Augmented Reality, C Sharp Programming

I’ve made it to Phase II, the last section in the 2D Game Development course! It’s honestly mind blowing to think about where I was two weeks ago, having no experience with Unity, Visual Studio, or C# coding, and where I am now. I’m grateful to have this blog as a time capsule to look back on and read in the future, wherever it may take me career-wise.

Lately I’ve been reading more about augmented reality and following designers that mesh AR with graphic design, a field I’m particularly interested in. Going through their portfolios and seeing them mix traditional design elements such as typography with AR is so inspiring and pushing me to think out of the box in terms of creative possibilities. It’s amazing to see all of my interests come together this way and I’m excited to watch the future of design unfold.

Today we had a company-wide meeting where we discussed the future after our internships, the different fields coding can lead you to, and where to get started in terms of looking for careers. I took some time to look up different augmented reality, virtual reality, and game development studios on LinkedIn just to get a sense of the job market and what skills companies are looking for. Although I’m not quite ready to jump into a developer position yet, researching prospective careers is serving as major motivation to refine my skills in coding with GameDevHQ and on my own time with graphic design.

On my own project, today I worked on programming a new enemy movement and spawning waves of enemies in sequences. Using Mathf.PingPong, a unique bit of code that propels an object in — you may have guessed — a ping pong motion, the enemy ships now travel downward in a zig-zag pattern. Previously, they would spawn at a random point on the y-axis and travel downward in a straight line.

I wasn’t able to fully nail the sequencing action and will have to continue working on that section in the morning. It seems that programming object motion and using physics isn’t my strong point, and I’ll be focusing on better understanding those concepts this week.
Animate your everyday with Litho controller + filmmaking app Diorama.
Tags: Oculus Rift, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality

Diorama by Litho, allows you to create Jurassic Park-like films anywhere. With it, you can produce far more sophisticated animated visual effects than ever previously possible on your phone. Diorama works with the Litho AR controller.

Here is an excerpt from the CEO of Litho, Nat Martin:

“I first tried a HoloLens back in 2017, and, despite its limitations, I was blown away by the experience. It offered a magical glimpse into a #future where technology was no longer an obstacle to the real world, but a #tool to enhance and engage with it.

The biggest drawback of both the original HoloLens and early, phone-based mobile AR applications is their input method. Hand tracking is too tiring and imprecise to spend much time using, while, with a touchscreen, you often end up obscuring what you’re trying to interact with. That’s why we created Litho — an input device and UX framework designed specifically for Augmented Reality. Litho allows you to interact effortlessly with the real world unimpeded by external trackers or base stations.

We launched Litho in November 2019. Since then, we’ve shipped hundreds of Litho Developer Kits around the world and started to partner with visionary companies to build applications for it. From the launch, users were creating mobile AR demo videos virtually indistinguishable from reality; the less technical, however, were struggling with Unity, which was creating a barrier to getting them started.

So, we developed Diorama, an app we believe offers a template for the future of filmmaking and visual effects creation.

Diorama lets you easily import a curated set of 3D assets into your AR scene.

If you have an iPhone with an A12 chip or newer, #actors can also interact directly with the props in your scene through body tracking, and the app has a selection of live video filters, which help blend virtual objects with the camera feed.

Diorama is already on iOS. To use it, you will need a Litho, which you can purchase from Knoxlabs for just $99.“

H/T Nat Martin & Knoxlabs

Things of #AR, #VR, & #Magic
Snoop Dogg Gunakan Teknologi AR Untuk Promosi Produk Terbarunya
Tags: Ar Sales Kit, Snoop Dogg, Media Promosi, Cali Red Wine, Augmented Reality

We’ll bring your business to the next level. | monsterar.net
Manus has become the standard for non-standard finger data
Tags: Oculus Rift, Motion Capture, Vive, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality

Capture finger data directly in Xsens MVN and its plugins with the Manus Prime II Xsens gloves

Designed for entertainment, education and training, the Manus Prime II range support 11-degrees of freedom (11DoF) tracking including full finger spread as well as over-stretching. They have interchangeable batteries which provide 5 hours of continuous usage and a universal mounting system for third-party hardware like the Vive Trackers.

The entry-level Manus Prime II gloves are now almost half the price, down from $4500 to $2500. Or if you want haptic feedback the Prime II Haptic gloves now come in at $3,500 instead of $4,800. Lastly, the more specialized Manus Prime II XSens comes in at $5,800 with the company’s Manus Core software included.

“We at Manus are super excited about our new pricing, making high-end finger tracking more accessible for creators and developers,” said Bart Loosman, CEO at Manus in a statement. “We felt that the market was waiting for someone to break the mold on expensive tracking hardware, and we felt that should be us.”

Manus Core supports multiple tracking systems such as: OpenVR (SteamVR), OptiTrack, Antilatency, Vicon, and ART, and can be used with development tools such as Unreal Engine and Unity.

They are all available now at www.knoxlabs.com/manus

H/T VRFocus & Knoxlabs

Things of #VR, #AR, & #Magic
Virtual Music News — November 2020
By: Amy Lameyer
Tags: VR, Spatial Audio, Virtual Concerts, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality

We’ve been using AirPods Pro for a year. This is what we think now

Apple’s AirPods Pro first went on sale in late October 2019 and a lot’s changed in the space of a year. Not only did the…
Mozilla saves us from IE, again
By: Trapped Mind
Tags: Webxr, Apple, Augmented Reality, Mozilla

Last month I started the development of an augmented reality application in the web platform thanks to The Immersive Web Working Group, for bringing augmented reality to the web. Everything was going very well, and I’ve tested on some android device such as Samsung A20 and Samsung A50s until the devil showed up and started to push me into the valley of despair.

Sadly this time I found that the famous or infamous browser of iOS, the great, Safari lingers a lot beyond the web standard. Apparently, Apple has chosen to step in the way Microsoft, used to be, and we, developers clearly remember the time that we had a tough time writing a code that works both in IE and other browsers. Steve Jobs’s legacy is becoming the next IE. Last time Mozilla interfered and popularized its great browser Firefox and saved us from the tides. It took me a long time to figure out that I don’t need to use JQuery to interact with the DOM and the world of javascript is safe again to adventure.

Ok, now is the time to present the hero, the one who brought the WebXR standard to iOS and saved lots of headaches for me, and released me from the damn of Safari. ladies and gentlemen let me introduce you to Mozilla WebXR Viewer.

check the link below website to know there are serious people out there that are not happy with the way Safari is.

Safari is new IE

Beware: A couple of days before I just encountered another issue with Safari, I had a component that I wanted to convert to an Image using html2canvas library, but about 78 pixels of the top cropped for no reason on Safari, I struggled for two days and couldn’t make it work, and the interesting part is that it works fine on android and windows in whatever browser your name and it doesn’t work in Safari. I’m suspicious that maybe this is Safari’s fault again, I don’t know.
Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality & Fashion (Try before you buy!)
Tags: VR, AR, Virtual Reality, Fashion, Augmented Reality

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are slowly but surely creating a mass market for designers, everyday consumers and fashionistas to experience fashion in a whole new way. With an increasing demand for remote “try-before-you-buy” options in the age of COVID-19, customers can try on jewelry, footwear, eyeglasses, and other apparel in AR/VR before making a purchase. Whole fashion shows can be enjoyed in the comfort of one’s home. The world of fashion is being transformed by amazing AR/VR innovations and as noted by Kathryn Carter, a general manager at Snapchat: “fashion is a natural partner for AR.”

Virtual Catwalk

Already in 2019, the British online fashion giant, ASOS, started experimenting with AR catwalks, as a feature in their mobile app.

© ASOS

In July 2020, a whole VR fashion show titled “The Fabric of Reality” was created by RYOT in partnership with Kaleidoscope, MOR and the Fashion Innovation Agency (FIA) at London College of Fashion. This year-long exhibition is now hosted within HTC Vive’s MOR virtual environment. Also, Gucci, the luxury fashion brand, just recently launched digital versions of its latest collections for virtual avatars, betting on VR environments becoming more crowded in the years to come.

Trending AR VR Articles:

Try Before You Buy

Wannaby, is an AR Commerce Company creating try-on apps for retails shoppers, such as Wanna Kicks for try-on footwear in AR. Gucci also has an app that allows you to virtually try on shoes before you buy them and has recently released the “Gucci Sneaker Garage,” a new experimental section of its app that enables users to virtually design their own Gucci shoes.

© Gucci

Warby Parker, a NY-based retailer of prescription glasses and sunglasses, also offers a mobile application which has an AR feature that allows you to virtually try on every single model of eyeglasses and sunglasses in their store, using your front-facing camera. We already covered their amazing AR shopping experience in our blog back in July. Other companies, such as Diamond Hedge and India-based CaratLane , are also enabling users to try out diamond rings and other jewelry before committing to an expensive purchase. AR-Watches even lets you try watches and timepieces on your wrist using special downloadable AR markers
Building an XR Application in Unity with MRTK [Part 3.5] — Cross-Platform Environment (VR)
By: Troy Ferrell
Tags: Hololens, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Oculus

In the previous section, the Spatial Awareness System in MRTK was used to bring real-world environment mesh data into the Unity scene. This is useful on Augmented Reality devices such as HoloLens where we can use the scanned world mesh for features such as Physics and occlusion. On virtual reality devices such as provided by Oculus, Microsoft, HTC and more, there is no scanned world mesh provided (at time of this writing). Passthrough AR in a virtual headset is advancing quickly but for the time being, all content in a VR is virtual. Thus, to support a mixed reality device that cross-platforms both AR and VR, there needs to be a virtual environment available for the targets to be placed upon.

Environment Content

For this step, any environment will do. The GitHub version of this project utilized the free models available in the Standard Assets package from Unity. See the Environment prefab in the GitHub project which is also in the root scene. The reader should feel empowered to be creative here!

There are two important settings with the environment GameObjects in order to ensure the rest of the project will work as intended.

All GameObjects in the environment need to be on the SpatialAwareness layer so the orb ball will interact with them. All GameObjects (as desired) need collider components to match their form

Toggling the Environment

Now that there is a virtual environment in the root Unity scene, there needs to be a way to toggle the environment and Spatial Awareness system from the previous section depending on what kind of device is being used at runtime.

This can be done by utilizing the CameraSystem in MRTK. The CameraSystem has a public property IsOpaque. If true, the current device is a “Virtual Reality” type device and if false, the device is a transparent “Augmented Reality” endpoint. The CameraSystem can easily be access by the CoreServices static helper class in MRTK. Thus, one can easily check if the device IsOpaque and if false, then hide all virtual assets under the Environment GameObject and allow the Spatial Awareness system to run. Otherwise, explicitly disable the Spatial Awareness system by using CoreServices to access it and calling Disable().

From the previous section, there was also the Spatial Mesh Observer which utilized a static mesh object in the project to simulate a scanned room environment. In order to run this in editor for testing, a simple flag can be added to hide the virtual environment and keep the Spatial Awareness system enabled to utilize the Spatial Mesh Observer in editor.

Previous section: [Part 3] — Scanning the Environment (AR)

Next section: [Part 4] — Building the targets

Table of Contents

References
Mask Confusion Settled: Here’s How Effective They Are
Tags: Testing, Covid Test, Public Health, Coronavirus

New study confirms consensus that masks protect the wearer and others

Face masks are widely considered by infectious disease experts to be a key layer of protection against catching or spreading SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. A new study confirms this consensus and provides helpful details for buying or making a mask.

https://www.reddit.com/live/167lbl1l47zkp

https://tautaruna.nra.lv/forums/tema/43619-49ers-vs-cardinals-live-stream-reddit/

https://www.peeranswer.com/question/5fe799aa6fa8d120291ce72d

http://www.megavideomerlino.com/albatros/default.asp?inl=0&lin=10182

https://blog.goo.ne.jp/fhgjtio/e/e95b3c699c4a6e7fed8c2b424ce77591

http://www.4mark.net/story/2976610/live-!-streams-official-49ers-vs-cardinals-live-stream-reddit

http://www.raptorfind.com/link/884232/live-streams-official-49ers-vs-cardinals-live-stream-reddit

https://www.posts123.com/post/1182993/live-streams-official-49ers-vs-cardinals-live-stream-reddit

https://www.topfind88.com/post/1182994/live-streams-official-49ers-vs-cardinals-live-stream-reddit

https://www.topsearch123.com/link/884233/live-streams-official-49ers-vs-cardinals-live-stream-reddit

https://www.88posts.com/post/288094/live-streams-official-49ers-vs-cardinals-live-stream-reddit

Well-fitting masks can easily trap 50% or more of infectious particles, according to a series of lab tests led by Linsey Marr, PhD, an aerosol expert at Virginia Tech. Masks made of two or three layers of cotton and other filtering materials can capture up to 90% of the particles. …
What You Should Know About Covid-19 Testing Before Gathering
Tags: Testing, Covid Test, Public Health, Coronavirus

Lots of people are waiting in lines around the country to get tested for Covid-19. The fact that so many people are seeking tests is a good thing. Testing is a risk mitigation measure and good public health practice. There are still some very important things to keep in mind.

https://www.reddit.com/live/167kmicntp8rv/

It’s safe to assume that a high proportion of people getting tested this week are doing so because they plan to gather with others for Thanksgiving on Thursday. Yet a negative test today does not mean that you definitely do not have Covid-19. Here’s why:

The incubation period for Covid-19 — the number of days between when you get infected and when you might see symptoms — can be as long as 14 days. Most people develop symptoms of the virus five to six days after they were exposed (and some people never develop noticeable symptoms). In rare cases people have developed symptoms at around two days after infection, and data suggests most people will have developed them by day 12. Now, keep in mind that people who get infected with the virus that causes Covid-19 can spread it two or three days before their symptoms start and people can be most contagious a couple days before they feel ill.

This is why most health organizations recommend people quarantine for 14 days, since it might take some time for the virus to replicate in your body to the point you test positive. It’s also why you can’t rely on testing alone to keep you and your loved ones Covid-19 free. Ideally you would be taking lots of precautions to ensure that the risk that you are positive is very low in addition to getting a Covid-19 test.

All of that being said, getting a Covid-19 test is better than not getting a Covid-19 test. If you plan to see other people and have not gotten tested, you should try to get one as soon as you can. If in addition to getting tested you practiced lots of other preventative measures like not seeing other people and wearing a mask, that’s better. Those same measures will be important if you are seeing people outside of your household. Wear a mask and try to stay outdoors.

From a public health standpoint, testing this week will catch many cases of Covid-19. I cannot support messaging suggesting it’s a futile strategy because it’s not. But testing this week will not catch all cases of Covid-19. People should still be encouraged to get tested and have easy access to do so.

It remains to be seen what kind of spike in cases will occur after the Thanksgiving holidays. There are many restrictions now in place, and many experts recommended against travel. However, over one million people took flights over this past weekend.

Next month brings more December holidays, and throughout the winter and rising case loads I highly recommend acquainting yourself with the most up-to-date and science-backed guides for testing, quarantining, and preventing Covid-19 infection. The two stories below are a great place to start.
Diabetic Cyborg Life 12/24: Still Here!?!
By: Adam, Diabetic Cyborg
Tags: Health, Life, Optimism, Public Health, Covid 19

Goofy selfie I sent on a chat. (selfie by self😝 )

I am still here, and we are still here. Please look around and recognize that this is a time unseen in over 100 years. That, in itself, is an accomplishment in 2020.

Be it luck, happenstance or a strange mix of the two and another circumstance, we have no clue. Those that are reading these words have survived what is forecast, and quickly approaching, over half-a-million deaths in these states in a calendar year. No, that is not going to earn you an award or make you money in itself, but you are here and can do exactly that in 2021.

Plans and ideas of what we can do are still possible, since we are still alive to act on them. This is stating the obvious, but I feel that simple reality should be made clear and celebrated. In a year that saw the questioning of facts and reality by our flipping POTUS, who is to say that we should NOT celebrate clear unassailable facts.

With the election, this supposed POTUS and COVID, it’s been a heck of a year for all of us still here to react to it on the dawn of a new year. Breathe deeply and recognize, we will see 2021 at least!