Snapchat Archives

Augmented Reality (AR), Companies, Hardware, News, VR World

North Star from Leap Motion is the next level of AR interface

Years ago, Leap Motion made headlines when they released footage of their intuitive Leap Motion device. For those not familiar with their namesake, this peripheral allowed users to control everything on their PCs with intuitive motion controls and gestures, as seen in the video below. In the years since that video’s release, Leap has successfully released that product and used it to supplement VR controls and development. While they haven’t released anything else since, they’ve been working hard in the background on AR and VR, and through Project North Star, they’re hoping to take AR interfaces to the next level. When most people think augmented

Augmented Reality (AR), Breaking, Event, Facebook, News, Social Media, Virtual Reality (VR), VR World

Facebook F8 Day 1: Instagram AR is here, VR roadmap revealed

Today at Facebook’s F8 conference, the company announced new AR camera features for Instagram. Users can use augmented reality lenses and effects while sharing photos, videos and stories. These include AR face filters, which can do such things as project shades onto your face. In addition to basic AR functionalities, the Camera Effects Platform is coming to Instagram, in a closed beta for now. Camera Effects are user-developed filters and augmented reality effects that people can easily share with others. You can even use these new AR effects just by viewing an Instagram post utilizing them. Naturally, Facebook Messenger is also receiving new augmented reality

Analysis, Augmented Reality (AR), Business, Companies, Mobile, News, VR World

Snapchat’s big bet on augmented marketing

Snapchat may have debuted as a platform for impermanent messaging, but in recent years they’ve also emerged as a leader in augmented reality. Speaking to people in public about AR may raise some eyebrows, but explaining that things like their favourite Snapchat Lenses or Pokemon Go are the result of AR will instantly familiarize them. Having long embraced the new technology in its application, Snapchat is now embracing an AR marketing initiative on multiple fronts. The most prominent of these stories to come out recently is in Shoppable AR, a platform through which advertisers can use augmented reality to advertise their products within the Snapchat

Analysis, Augmented Reality (AR), Google, Mobile, News, Smartphones, Virtual Reality (VR), VR World

Google bring AR Stickers to Motion Stills…to mixed reception

Google’s interest in VR is no secret. From the wildly-successful Google Cardboard (and the movement it inspired), to their push for 360 content on YouTube, it’s clear that Google thinks VR is the future. This affinity extends to AR as well, and for right now it looks like Google is looking to compete with social media giants like Snapchat in the AR arena. At the tail-end of 2017, Snapchat started pushing AR tie-ins and a full-blown Lens Studio for AR effect creation. For its Pixel phones, Google launched AR Stickers as a demonstration of the power of the Pixel camera. The app and its eponymous

Android, Augmented Reality (AR), iOS, Mobile, News, OSx, Smartphones, Social Media, Tablets, VR World, Windows

Lens Studio lets anyone create AR effects for Snapchat

Snap, the company behind prominent messaging app Snapchat, has released Lens Studio, a software for producing augmented reality effects for still photos and videos. What used to be an in-house application is now in the hands of all who want to dabble in creating their own AR experiences for use in Snapchat. Lens Studio is Snap’s second app, and it’s available on Mac OS X and Windows. The release of this design platform is actually the most recent in a series of similar stories: Facebook opened its AR platform earlier this week, as well as Amazon earlier this month. With Lens Studio opening up to advertisers

Apple, Augmented Reality (AR), Auto, Companies, News

You can now customize your new BMW i with ARKit

BMW is first brand to offer a configurator through Apple’s Augmented Reality app using ARKit with iOS 11. The BMW i Visualizer app allows you in that way, to select and customize a life-sized version of the BMW i3, i3s, or i8 car while in any location. Now customers in select markets can use their iPads and iPhones to to view real-size 3D renderings of BMW i cars like the i3 and i8. While the app is available in 17 countries already, there’s support for over 21 languages offered through it. “Our products are highly emotional vehicles which customers need to experience,” said Andrea Castronovo, BMW Group

Entertainment, Mobile, News, Smartphones, VR World

Stranger Things Season 2 Gets An AR Snapchat Tie-In

Did you hear? Stranger Things Season 2 is out, and Snapchat has apparently implemented a full AR tie-in for its release. Snapchat has offered various filters for some time now, but with the addition of world lenses (made late last year), the application is now capable of light augmented reality experiences. Most world lenses for Snapchat aren’t very interactive and are just a way to line up a cool Snap or two. The new Stranger Things-themed world lenses, however, allow you to interact with the iconic lights from Joyce Byers’ living room. Tapping different items in the AR recreation of this location from Stranger Things,

Apple, Augmented Reality (AR), Business, Companies, Facebook, Google, News, startups, VR World

Let’s go to the Theatre – AR Version

Google Glass managed to make AR and it seemed inaccessible with limited applications and maximum privacy concerns. Now, simple AR apps like Pokemon Go and Snapchat have brought down consumer walls and made us see the fun side of the technology. Now that ARKit has launched on iOS 11 and Apple has effectively created a huge platform for AR on the iPhone overnight we can only see it expanding in terms of depth and breadth. Just to remember, ARKit is an augmented reality framework Apple introduced at WWDC ’17 that is compatible with iOS 11 iPhones and iPads. ARKit lets developers place digital objects in the real world by blending the

Augmented Reality (AR), Companies, Entertainment, Facebook, News, VR World

Snapchat Launches AR Art Platform

Snapchat plans to launch a new art initiative aimed at using augmented reality to feature art installations around the world. A countdown clock magically appeared, and a snippet of javascript underlying the page appears to confirm that the reveal is a collaboration with renowned artist and big Snapchat fan Jeff Koons. The only piece of art on the site is a photo of Central Park in New York City with people sitting about in an open lawn. However, dogged software engineer and Twitter user Jonah Grant uncovered the secret by setting his clock ahead. According to the screenshots, Snapchat is calling on artists to submit

Analysis, Business, Facebook, Global Politics, Google, News, Social Media, VR World

Earth vs. Social: Facebook is the Largest Nation in the World

Facebook often claims they are the largest social network in the world. Even though there are many non-humans on the list (pets), the undeniable fact is that Facebook has more people using its services than there are people living in China. If we would extrapolate the numbers of social media users and real world countries, we would get quite an interesting list. Thus, we decided to compile data from Wikipedia, showing the list of citizens in largest countries in the world, and an August 2015 report from We Are Social, a British-based analyst firm which focuses on tracking trends in the world of social media. The results

Business, Software Programs, VR World

Here’s Snapchat’s Plan to Make Money

While Snapchat has the following and growth metrics that would be sure to make most app developers jealous, it does have one problem: it doesn’t appear yet to be making any money. For the investors behind Snapchat Inc., monetizing the incredibly popular app is no doubt a priority. But how will this be done? Likely a combination of sponsored content and data-driven advertising. Snapchat by its own admission has 30 million users, 50% of those are aged 13-17, and as they send over 700 million photos a day Snapchat gathers all kinds of data on them. Crunched into something marketable, Snapchat could easily prove the

Business, Cloud Computing, Entertainment, VR World

Snapchat Lied, Your Images are Saved, Settles with FTC

So, you know the whole premise that Snapchat is based upon? The fact that you can set a timer for an image and once that image’s time disappears, so does the image? And that somehow is supposed to prevent people from potentially saving those embarrassing or racy photos? Well, that was all a big fat lie. In a settlement that Snapchat has reached with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) they have agreed to a whole host of regulations and oversight of the company’s privacy and security policies since they had misled consumers about both. In fact, Snapchat’s security and privacy will be monitored closely for

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