AR/VR/Web3 Insights
Some creators will be able to make money off in-app lenses. It’s the start of a business Snap hopes will make its platform the center of an AR universe. At its Lensfest developer event this week, Snap announced that it now has more than 300,000 developers building AR products for its platform and that together, they’ve built more than 3 million lenses that have been viewed a staggering 5 trillion times. All those numbers are up over a year ago, and for Snap, they’re proof that AR is already finding some product-market fit. Snap’s big news at this year’s Lensfest is all about monetization. Snap is working with some creators to build lenses that include buyable digital goods — think in-game items, upgraded lens control, that sort of thing — that users can purchase with Snap Tokens. The plan borrows ideas from the in-game economies of platforms like Roblox and Fortnite, with just a dash of the NFT craze. Either way, Snap’s hoping it helps developers make money now and incentivizes them to keep building going forward. (The Verge)
This Christmas, Gorillaz are treating us to a mammoth AR experience. The band will play twice in real life; first on the 17 December at Times Square, followed by Piccadilly Circus on the 18 December. These location-specific immersive experiences will see Murdoc, 2D, Noodle and Russel “tower” over audiences as they perform amidst “two iconic skylines”, a release states. The studio behind it is Nexus, with Fx Goby and Gorillaz co-creator Jamie Hewlett directing following their collaborative work on the Cracker Island music video. The recent Gorillaz Presents project is made possible by Google’s new Geospatial API, which is built to enable immersive experiences in public spaces in 87 countries without requiring scanning of the physical space. According to Google, the “API opens up nearly 15 years of our understanding of the world through Google Maps and is powered by the Visual Positioning Service (VPS) and Street View”. (It's Nice That)
Epic Games, developer of leading real-time 3D creation platform Unreal Engine, and Capturing Reality, a software development house based in Slovakia, have recently announced that the RealityScan app is now available to download for free on iOS. First announced earlier this year, RealityScan is a 3D scanning app for mobile devices that turns photos into high-fidelity 3D models. Users simply photograph an object using their smartphone, and the RealityScan app uses cloud processing to transform it into a 3D model, which can then be exported to Sketchfab and shared with the world. RealityScan is created by Capturing Reality, a developer of photogrammetry solutions whose mission is to make 3D scanning accessible to all creators. With RealityScan, anyone can now create 3D models from real-world objects and use them to enhance the realism of their visualization projects, according to Epic. (Auganix)
Generative AI is changing the way we create content, including WebAR content. AI software tools, such as DALL·E 2, Midjourney, BariumAI and D-ID AI, can be part of your creative workflows. Generative AI can be used to quickly generate ideas, texture 3D models and provide a rapid way to create assets that can be used in your WebAR experience. The real magic happens when you combine AI software with AR. This holographic cyborg project used DALL·E 2 as a tool to help with the development of a real-time web-based augmented reality experience. The textures in this WebAR experience were created using DALL·E, including the holographic cyborg face. The face was then animated using D-ID AI, an AI technology that brings portrait photos to life. The WebAR content was anchored to a real-world location using Lightship VPS for Web, which transforms everyday locations into experiential destinations with unprecedented accuracy and precision. Users accessed and engaged with the entire experience in their smartphone browser. (8th Wall)
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The metaverse. Voice assistants. AR. VR. For years, everybody promised a Next Big Thing, and the smartphone continues to crush them all. Everywhere you turned over the last few years, someone was promising The Next Big Thing After Smartphones. Yes, they’d say, the iPhone is the most ubiquitous product in the history of consumer electronics, and the smartphone reprogrammed the world in utterly unparalleled ways. But have you seen this voice assistant that makes Morgan Freeman give you driving directions or these humongous goggles that let you play ping-pong with someone across the globe? This is the future. Smartphones may be boring now, but that’s only because they’ve been so good for so long. As they’ve become so entrenched and ubiquitous in our lives, they’ve become even harder to disrupt. How do you beat the device that can do everything and is always with you? Battery life, I suppose. But good luck with that on your AR glasses. (The Verge)
Wholeland is a digital fashion story and visually rich journey of self-discovery that unfolds across 7 chapters. Each chapter includes digital couture, AR wearables, co-creation, fashion shows, metaverse meet-ups, and airdrops. Our collection of digital wearables, called XXories, are your keys to the experience. Minting an XXorie allows you to access Wholeland and go on a journey of fearless self-expression. "Wholeland is a place of self-discovery where we meet the beautiful complexity of our multiple selves, expressing our wholeness through digital fashion." The Whole collection asks you to connect with the uncomfortable to make space for the unexpected. The XXories are the beginning of your journey of self-discovery. The Collection drops in Mid February 2023, with a limited supply of 3,000 XXories. The high-quality XXories can be worn via AR filters, and XXories holders have exclusive access to Wholeland. (The Fabricant)
Chat GBT is an AI tool in which you can ask questions on any subject, and it will use machine learning and AI to create a physical and digital manifestation of what you ask - because of the nature of AI, it will create a different version every time. Stijin Spanhove has been experimenting with ChatGPT and WebAR to build a scene of 3D objects just by talking to a chatbot, seen as part of his LinkedIn activity. Tom Emrich, a thought leader in augmented reality, virtual reality, and the metaverse, and Director of Product at Niantic, responds by celebrating Niantic x 8th Wall's achievement in his reply to the LinkedIn post: "Generative AI + AR is a powerful combination! Awesome experiment with ChatGPT and 8th Wall WebAR." This tool has the power to take any question, whether it be existential to more playful and creative, and show you a Generative AI response using only your browser and this Chatbot - no need to download any special software or application! (LinkedIn)
Image transformation techniques can be applied to multimedia messages. Recently, a video system was introduced that allows you to "soften the facial features" of the person on the screen. Advanced real-time video filters could remove wrinkles and pimples from your face or from the faces of your favourite political figures, caricature their opponents, give your mother-in-law a Klingon persona on your video phone, re-clothe people in your favourite fashion, and replace visual clutter in the background with something tasteful. It is also possible to augment human senses with transparent external information pre-processors. For example, if your audio/video filters notice an object of potential interest that fails to differ from its signal environment enough to catch your attention, the filters can amplify or otherwise differentiate (move, flash, change pitch, etc.) the signal momentarily, to give you enough time to focus on the object, but not enough to realize what triggered your attention. (Lucifer)
Want to check out our augmented reality projects? Follow us here on LinkedIn or on Instagram at @atomicdigital.design.
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