Unlimited creativity with AI-generated AR

Get ready to be inspired with the latest XR news and trends in 5 short posts. Edition #10 is here. PRESS START ??

1. Unlimited creativity with AI-generated AR

We are seeing more and more AR experiences that use generative AI. For creating assets like this AI generated QR code. Which also comes to life in AR with this webAR experiment by 8th Wall's Ian Curtis. But also real-time in AR like this winner of 8th Wall's VPS for Web Challenge. Matt Stentiford used a customized StableDiffusion + ControlNet setup to generate images using prompts and overlay them on actual locations in AR. Wow!

Inspired on the Deliveroo campaign ‘‘How do you Deliveroo’ we’ve created an AR portal experience on Snapchat that was generated by AI. Floating food items and the dreamy and Daliesque world were created with Midjourney, Runway and Adobe Firefly and brought to life in AR as a spatial experience. One places a large pizza slice in the world as a portal and is then drawn into a dreamy world. Where the user is prompted to find different surrealistic food items such as a fries volcano or a spaghetti waterfall. Try it yourself.

2. Niantic released a new AR ad format, but also letting 230 employees go

Niantic launches the Rewarded AR ad format for its experiences. When users interact with a (branded) AR experience within the app, they unlock special content/rewards. For example, the Circle K brand did a pilot that showed a treasure box on the map of an app. When you opened it, a coffee cup was placed in AR that collected beans (see below). And after Niantic had already partnered with Amazon for an app store, you can now also unlock unique content within Pokémon Go as a Prime member.

The new ad format is of course a perfect addition to the Lightship platform from Niantic and 8th Wall. A SDK for studios to develop location-based branded AR experiences. In this way, Niantic no longer only has to focus on its own games, but can earn money with other experiences developed by third parties. As AR Insider also outlines well in this article and CEO John Hanke also cites this update.

Niantic is clearly looking for a new way to generate revenue. Because due to financial uncertainty and disappointing results, major titles such as NBA All-World and Marvel: World of Heroes have been discontinued and 230 employees have been laid off. These 230 people all worked for the game platform team in the studio in LA that will be closed completely. Read the organizational update from CEO John Hanke.

3. The advance of location-based AR is unstoppable

As you know, we are big believers in and fans of location based AR. We came across this wonderful example of Snapchat and Busterwood turning the historic facade of the Samaritaine Paris Pont-Neuf into a giant amusement park. And the new Barbie movie also gives various locations in New York a nice pink vibe. For example, the Statue of Liberty became part of Barbie Land with this Snapchat Landmarker and the Gap Store on Time Square got a Barbie takeover. Google and Mattel brought the store and environment to life with Google Maps data via Google's Geospatial Creator and Adobe Aero into an enchanting pink world. Check out this video from Google.

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4. Ryuichi Sakamoto's final performance is an AR concert

We briefly mentioned this XR concert in a previous newsletter, but I still want to talk about it a bit more because it is a magical experience. The Oscar-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto died this year at 71, but you can watch him play his piano during the AR concert Kagami in New York of Manchester. You wear a Magic Leap 2 headset and experience a volumetric recording, accompanied by vfx in which he plays 10 songs. His music literally lives on. Fantastic. Photos by tech journalist Jake Steiner Man and articles by the Guardian and Wired.

5. AR at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2023

Every year, creativity is celebrated in style at the Cannes advertising festival. In addition to agencies, all major global tech companies are also present. 8th Wall and Niantic had their own place where knowledge and inspiration was shared and they also announced a collaboration with SmartMedia to link AR to web3 wallets and an in-game Rewarded AR ad format (as mentioned before). Snapchat and Disney celebrated 100 years of Disney with an immersive AR exhibit that brought the magic of Disney stories to life like never before. All kinds of themed spaces like Guardians of the Galaxy or The Mandalorioan came to life with AR.

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