The AR Roundup: March 2022

Every month I round up what you may have missed in Augmented Reality including the latest stats, funding news and launch announcements and more. Here is what happened in augmented reality between March 1-31, 2022.

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Numbers

Reported

• Meta to Add 2,000 Jobs in Spain Over Next 5 Years (AdWeek)
• Meta to create new Canadian engineering hub in Toronto and plans to hire thousands to help build for the metaverse (Auganix)
• ChiliBeans launched its first virtual try-on campaign on Big Brother Brasil 2022?which received more than 75,000 users in 30 seconds with an average duration of 1 minute and 45 seconds. (Twitter)
• RealWear reports it has serviced 5000+ industrial customers with over 60,000+ devices (Twitter)
• Ready Player Me now reports 1,800+ partners using its avatar system (Twitter)

Surveyed

• A new study by CameraIQ finds 76% of consumers have already used AR (augmented reality) one way or another. Of the 24% who haven’t, half hope to do so in the future. (Retail Wire)

Featured Video:?Everyone is talking about NeRFs (Neural Radiance Fields)

Money

Funds

• Qualcomm launches $100m metaverse fund as it works with Square Enix on XR gaming (ZDNET)
• Soundcloud veteran founds €25m European metaverse VC fund (Sifted)
• Niantic partners with Project for Public Spaces to help fund Community Placemaking Grant program to enhance public spaces (Auganix)

Hardware

• Alibaba leads $60 million funding into augmented reality glasses maker Nreal in metaverse play (CNBC)
• Google Acquires MicroLED Startup Raxium for Future AR and MR Tech (CNET)
• Snap buys brain-computer interface startup for future AR glasses (The Verge)
• China's AR company Rokid closes $160M Series C to expand globally (TechCrunch)
• Vijay Shekhar Sharma-Backed Extended Reality Startup AjnaLens Secures Pre-Series A Funding (Inc42)

Platforms &?Tools

• Pokémon GO creator Niantic is acquiring WebAR development platform 8th Wall (TechCrunch)
• Goldman Sachs-Backed Virtual Beauty App Developer To Go Public In $1 Billion SPAC Deal (Forbes)
• Oorbit raises $5M from Mark Cuban, Deadmau5 and more for metaverse platform (VentureBeat)
• Auki labs raises $13M for its peer-to-peer positioning technology (Business Insider)
• Liv raises $8.5M to enable easy streaming for AR and VR creators (VentureBeat)
• Tier Mobility's buy of Fantasmo brings camera positioning tech in-house (TechCrunch)

Applications & Solutions

• Autodesk acquires XR firm The Wild (VentureBeat)
• BrioXR joins Adobe (LinkedIn)
• Augmented Reality medical technology company MediView secures $9.9M in SAFE funding (Auganix)
• Foresight Williams invests ￡2.5M growth capital into Kognitiv Spark to help expand its AR Remote Assist solution into new industries and geographies (Auganix)

Featured Tweet:?Enter the "Sutuverse" with this Neonz pop-up AR experience

News

Hardware

Launch Announcements

• Magic Leap 2 Hands-On: AR Glasses That Can Dim the Real World (CNET)
• Magic Leap 2 Controller May Use On-board Inside-out Tracking, an Industry-first (Road to VR)
• Qualcomm Partners With TikTok Parent ByteDance on XR Devices and Software (CNET)
• Interaxon Muse launches new VR SDK & VR compatible EEG band to support innovations in brain health into VR & AR applications (BusinessWire)
• NuEyes and ManoMotion Partner to Bring Hand Tracking & Gesture Control to the Pro 3 (Globenewswire)
• Metastage expands to Canada with Departure Lounge partnership (Medium)

Updates

• Mojo Vision takes another step toward AR contact lenses with new prototype (TechCrunch)
• Facebook's Ray-Ban Stories can now record up to 60 seconds of video and are available in more countries (Engadget)
• First Lynx VR-AR Headsets Planned To Ship In ‘June – July’ (UploadVR)
• Dispelix and AAC announce strategic partnership to provide AR and MR industry with high-quality waveguide displays (Auganix)
• Varjo Base 3.5 adds distortion correction, Unity AR Foundation support and more (Varjo)
• WayRay releases new video showcasing its True AR HUD in action (VRScout)
• Tilt Five announces new partnership with Asmodee Digital (VRScout)
• Tilt Five announces official game launch titles (Tilt Five)

Rumors, Patents & Relevant Research

• Samsung Reportedly Making an AR Headset for the Metaverse to Compete Against Apple, Google (WCCFtech)
• Lumus and Luxexcel demonstrate reflective waveguide in a prescription lens demonstrator (3D Printing Media Network)
• The Khronos Group enters cooperation agreement with the Haptics Industry Forum to bring Haptics to the Metaverse (Auganix)
• Researchers design holographic lenses based on plasma (Phys.org)

News

Platforms &?Tools

Launch Announcements

• 8th Wall launches Absolute Scale bringing interactive, cross-platform, real-world scale to the web—a first for the browser (8th Wall)
• 8th Wall announces new integration with 4Dviews (8th Wall)
• Snap Lens Studio update introduces Custom Landmarkers, physics enhancements and more (Snap)
• Qualcomm and Square Enix partner to create AR games (Road to VR)
• Adobe launches new Adobe Substance 3D Modeler in beta (VentureBeat)
• NVIDIA announces NVIDIA OVX for powering large-scale digital twin simulations that run in Omniverse (Auganix)
• NVIDIA Announces Omniverse Cloud to Connect Tens of Millions of Designers and Creators (NVIDIA)
• VNTANA Integrates With Meta AR Publishing API for Creation of 3D Ads on Facebook, Instagram (AdWeek)

Updates

• Zoom’s new virtual avatars let you show up to your next meeting as a dog (The Verge)
• Scaniverse updates with new sharing options (Scaniverse)
• Sketchfab Integration Now Available on NVIDIA Omniverse (Sketchfab)
• ShapesXR gets passthrough update (Twitter)

Rumors, Patents & Relevant Research

• Adobe Unveils New Augmented Reality Shopping Tool (AdWeek)

Featured Video: WayRay showcases its True AR HUD in action

News

Enterprise Applications & Solutions

Enterprise Solutions

• Scope AR Has Become a Siemens Digital Industries Software Partner (VentureBeat)
• Arvizio announces suite of capabilities for its AR Instructor for Augmented Reality medical equipment training and maintenance (Auganix)
• Norwegian agricultural machinery manufacturer Orkel selects RealWear’s HMT-1 device for use across its business network (Auganix)
• Audi uses Rokid Glass 2 to bring retail shopping experiences to customers (Twitter)

News

Consumer Applications & Solutions

Toys and Games

• LEGO DOTS lets users create designs in AR (Twitter)
• Izumi World AR Game Plans to Bring Augmented Reality and NFTs Together in Play-to-Earn Experience (ARPost)
• Joe Manganiello's Arcana brings augmented reality to RPGs (Nerdist)

Retail

• IKEA: Space Unfolded Pop-Up Provides Shoppers with AR-Powered Design Experience (Retail Touchpoints)
• EE launches the world's first augmented reality SUPERSTORE at Wembley Stadium where football fans can explore and buy England merchandise (Daily Mail)
• Nreal uses WebAR to market its Nreal Light glasses (Twitter)
• JBL audio uses AR to feature its JBL x Giannis headphone collaboration (Twitter)
• JigSpace uses Snap to create "how to" kitchen Lens (Twitter)

Automotive

• Kia launches “Robo Dogmented Reality” experience for Super Bowl (8th Wall)
• Mercedes uses WebAR to bring its C-Class to life in Singapore (Twitter)

Food & Beverage

• Coca-Cola Starlight cans can be scanned to trigger an out-of-this-world AR performance featuring Ava Max (Twitter)
• Smith’s partners with Snapchat to launch new chips in augmented reality (Mumbrella)

Fashion & Beauty

• Disney uses AR to promote its Pandora Marvel Charms (Twitter)
• Grace Choi makeup template TikTok effects go viral to teach better makeup application (Twitter)

Music, Film & TV

• Coldplay and BTS bring album covers to life with WebAR (8th Wall)
• Coachella brings its welcome box to life with Instagram AR filters (Twitter)
• HBO Show "Insecure" launches AR scavenger hunt in LA (Twitter)
• Verizon gives Oscars 2022 viewers red carpet access via AR portal (Twitter)
• Google app adds a dancing AR panda Mei from Disney's Turning Red (Android Police)
• Coachella debuts a series of Instagram filters for its welcome box (Twitter)

Sports

• Crypto.com, Snap Create AR Lens Based on Super Bowl Spot With LeBron James (AdWeek)
• REK.tv looks to revolutionize spectator sports with AR (VRScout)

Travel & Tourism

• Walt Disney World Releases New Annual Passholder Magnets with Augmented Reality Feature (Laughing Place)
• Valo Motion unveils Jump Theater immersive technology activity park (VRScout)

Education

• Arizona State Launching New VR/AR Classes, Nonny De La Pe?a To Helm (VRScout)

Arts & Culture

• New Augmented Reality Models Bring Ice Age Animals to Virtual Life (Scientific America)
• Factory 42 Green Planet AR Experience powered by NVIDIA RTX (Geeky Gadgets)
• Lucify.io debuts to bring NFT into the real world using WebAR (Twitter)

Featured Quote:

"The metaverse is no longer a single virtual world or even a cluster of virtual worlds. It's the entire system of virtual and augmented worlds," Chalmers tells me over Zoom. "Where the old metaverse was like a platform on the internet, the new metaverse is more like the internet as a whole, just the immersive internet." ~ David Chalmers, Philosopher and Author of Reality+

(Source:?CNET)

News

Human Impact &?Ethics

• Children's Health of Orange County uses an AR bear to walk children through the steps of a MRI scan (VRScout)

Read my "22 Augmented Reality Trends for 2022" here.

For the latest in augmented reality follow me here on LinkedIn or on Twitter?@TomEmrich.

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