Adobe AR Concept Syncs Digital Notes To Physical Documents

Adobe shared a new concept they called ‘Dually Noted‘, which uses AR to allow for seamless collaboration when editing a document simultaneously across physical and digital versions. The tool syncs notes so they can appear on the physical version of a document via AR.

The concept was presented as part of a series called Adobe Sneaks, which showcase innovative, proof-of-concept projects in the works at Adobe. These concepts will not necessarily make it to a full release, however, viewers can vote online for their favorite Adobe Sneak project, in the hopes that it might be worked on further.

Dually Noted uses AR to synchronize notes and edits between digital and physical copies. The tool allows for notes made in Adobe Acrobat on a PDF to be linked to a physical copy of the document and displayed in AR using your mobile phone.

dually noted adobe ar concept

For example, if an author and a publisher are collaborating on the final review of a book, the publisher can make annotations on the PDF digital copy and the author can then view those annotations overlaid on the physical copy while they proofread. This means that you can mark and review documents physically while also using your phone to check for any notes that were made digitally.

However, the app also then allows the AR user to reply to notes on their phone, which get synced back into the digital copy of the document. Plus, AR can be used to highlight and comment on sections of text as well. This takes the best of both worlds — allowing for physical proofing and eliminating the need to also open up a digital copy on your computer just to see a few notes that pertain to certain pages.

You can watch the full Adobe presentation on Dually Noted here. If you like Dually Noted and want to see it worked on further, head over to the Adobe Sneaks event page on Twitter and like the Dually Noted tweet to vote for the project.

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Sunglasses-sized Tobii Pro Glasses 3 Will Make Eye Tracking Comfortable

If you were wondering how eye-tracking hardware could evolve after becoming frighteningly accurate — in a good way — there’s now an answer. Leading eye-tracking wearable maker Tobii revealed its Tobii Pro Glasses 3, which have shrunk to roughly the size of aviator-style sunglasses while adding even better recording technology. For businesses and researchers interested in measuring eye movements or using them to control devices, the comparatively small, unobtrusive form factor could be a very big deal.

Having spent years working on consumer and professional eye-tracking systems, the Swedish company is billing its latest offering as ideal for visual attention research, particularly outdoors, as it brings eye-tracking and real world scene-recording hardware into a design people could comfortably wear in public. Four eye cameras and 16 illuminators are integrated into the lenses without blocking the user’s view, while a wide-angle external camera simultaneously records “much more” of the environment than the second-generation Glasses model, even in dusk-like lighting conditions. Android and Windows devices can be used to wirelessly control recordings.

Unlike the company’s consumer hardware, which has been sold as an accessory and integrated into mixed reality headsets, Tobii Pro Glasses 3 are designed specifically for enterprise use. Designers can employ them to see how users interact with product prototypes, such as moment-by-moment tracking of a driver’s focus when testing new automotive heads-up displays. Marketers can use them to instantly track which packaging or product design attracts the most attention. Managers can watch replays of what workers see in factories or other workspaces, helping to increase safety or remove distractions. Audio is recorded along with the videos and synchronized eye-tracking data to provide a complete picture of the experience.

Like prior generations of the Tobii hardware, the wearable has uses beyond business applications, including scientific research. Measurements are done at very high rates — 50 or 100 updates per second — and the system automatically adjusts for slippage to keep tracking accurate throughout recordings. Tobii also offers add-on IR-blocking safety lenses for outdoor use, and it says the new design fits under helmets and headgear so that the glasses can be used in numerous scenarios. That’s an improvement over the prior model, which had some awkwardly positioned components that required special accommodations to integrate into helmets.

While the new glasses are indeed “Pro” and targeted towards enterprises, they demonstrate where eye tracking is headed for consumers in the foreseeable future — into ever-smaller and more convenient form factors. Beyond analytics, Tobii’s hardware enables eyes to control user interfaces, using gaze changes to move a cursor and reading a fixed gaze on a given point to signal acceptance or moving forward. VR and AR companies have welcomed that use of the technology, as well as the virtues of gaze tracking when offering foveated rendering, a technique that prioritizes graphics detail where the eye is looking, using less detail and computing power to render the periphery.

Tobii Pro Glasses 3 are available starting today. Pricing is available on request from the company’s sales team.

This post by Jeremy Horwitz originally appeared on VentureBeat.

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Google Can Now Present AR Models On Mobile For Select Search Results

Select Google search results will display a ‘View in 3D ‘ option on mobile devices, which can then be extended into AR and explored in 3D using your phone. The content available includes a range of animals and scientific content that could be for education purposes.

The feature actually launched last year, but at the time only included models of animals. Now, Google has teamed up with Visible Body and Biodigital to expand the AR search result offerings to include scientific content such as models of human anatomic systems and cell structures.

The feature is integrated right into Google search on your phone’s web browser and supports Android phones running Android 7 and up and Apple phones from the iPhone 6S onward, running iOS 11 and up. All you need to do is open your web browser of choice on Android, or Safari or Chrome on iOS, and search for one of the supported subjects. The results should display an option to look at a 3D model — simply press the ‘View in 3D’ button and then click on ‘View in your space’.

Google search results AR

Once the ground has been identified, the model will be displayed in your space, allowing you to explore it in 3D. You can view an example in the GIF above, provided by Google.

With a number of anatomical systems and different cell structures, the AR functionality could become a really valuable and interactive tool in science education. This is especially true in the current climate, where many children are currently being home-schooled due to the global pandemic but still might have access to an AR-supported phone.

The human anatomical 3D models include the digestive system, the respiratory system, the skeletal system, and much more. There are also a large number of cell structures as well, such as the mitochondrion, cell membranes, and plant cells. Given that the tool was recently expanded to include scientific content, hopefully even more supported search results are added to the tool in the near future.

For a full list of search terms and items that support AR models on mobile, see this Google Search help article.

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Monthly Round-Up: The Biggest VR And AR News From May 2020

Can you believe we’re already through May 2020? There’s so much happening that it can be hard to keep up — that’s why we’ve rounded up the most important VR and AR news from this month in one convenient spot!

It’s been a packed month — if you’ve missed anything important, it’s probably listed here.

The Biggest Stories

Upload VR Showcase Summer Edition 1

The Upload VR Showcase: Summer Edition Arrives June 8 On YouTube & IGN

Watch: Sony Reveals Research On Next-Gen Finger-Tracked VR Controllers

Half-Life: Alyx Catapults VR Headsets On Steam To 2 Million Users

Report: Facebook Developing More Comfortable Oculus Quest With Higher Refresh Rate

Facebook: $100 Million+ Spent On Quest Apps In One Year & More Than 10 Titles Generated $2M+

Oculus Quest Hand-Tracking Gets Full Release, Official Games Coming Soon

Leaker Claims Apple Glass Coming As Soon As Late 2021, Targeting $500

HP Reverb G2: 4K VR Headset With Valve Audio/Lenses, Touch-Like Controllers, & IPD Slider For $600

Editorials, Features and Interviews

Oculus Headsets

Editorial: Oculus ‘Del Mar’ Quest Successor Should Have These Features

Editorial: To Keep Up, Sony Must Prepare To Release More Than One PSVR Next-Gen

Editorial: Facebook Should Aim To Replace Its 3 VR Headsets With 1

Get Rhythm: How Beat Sage Uses AI To Create Beat Saber Maps

Exclusive Interviews: ‘Waltz’ And ‘Curious Tale’ Devs Discuss Quest Hand Tracking Updates

Cooperative Innovations Talks Spaceteam VR… Inside Spaceteam VR

Oculus Quest: Year In Review – Facebook’s Big Play For Standalone VR

Guides and Lists

doom original art work

Half-Life: Alyx – Best Custom Maps, Mods And Campaigns

How To Find, Download And Install Half-Life: Alyx Mods And Custom Maps

How To Install And Play Doom In VR On Oculus Quest

The 25 Best Oculus Quest Games And Experiences – Spring 2020

Best Oculus Quest Games And Apps To Sideload Via SideQuest (Spring 2020)

How To Play Skyrim VR On Oculus Quest – What You Need And The Best Options

Reviews and Hands-On

Tetris Effect Oculus Quest Review: Achieving Transcendence In Standalone VR

Baby Shark VR Is Well-Made, Still Insufferable But Raises Concerning Questions – Quick Review

Gorn On PSVR Is A Great Port In Need Of A Few Fixes

Waltz of the Wizard Quest Hand-Tracking Impressions: Magic In Your Hands

Oculus Quest Review 2020: Facebook’s Standalone Savior Is The VR Headset To Beat

News Highlights

Vader Immortal PSVR

Espire 1 Adds New Weapons, Challenges, Improved Load Times In Upcoming Update

Skydance: Walking Dead PSVR Version Is ‘Awesome’, Quest Port Underway

Star Wars: Vader Immortal Is Coming To PSVR This Summer

Valve Releases Beta OpenVR Support For Unity’s New XR Plugin System

The Wizards – Dark Times Release Date Revealed, Now A Full Sequel

The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners PSVR Launches Today

You Can Now Play Echo Arena On Oculus Quest With Open Beta

The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners Will Get New Content

Dance Rhythm Game Audio Trip Launches On Oculus Quest Today

The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners PSVR vs PC VR – A First-Class Console Port

Doctor Who: The Edge Of Time To Get New Content Later This Year As Maze Theory Expands Series

PSVR Exclusive Iron Man VR Launches July 3

Unreal Engine 5 Supports VR, Promises Generational Leap For Graphics

Oculus Link Now Works With Almost Any USB Cable- Including The One In the Box

UploadVR Launches New YouTube Channel: VR Game Trailers & Clips

Valve Launches Half-Life: Alyx Workshop And Community Development Tools

Beat Saber Adds More 360-Degree And One Saber Maps On May 25

‘Immersed’ And ‘Spatial’ Apps Come To Oculus Quest In Remote Work Push

You Can Now Use Your Oculus Username In Select Facebook Groups

Jason Rubin: Oculus Cloud Rendering More Than 5 Years Out

Facebook Shows ‘Floating Windows’ Concept VR Workspace With Color Passthrough

elixir hand tracking yellow hands oculus quest

Elixir Is Facebook’s Free Oculus Quest Hand-Tracking Demo Game, Out Now

University Project Shows Hot And Cold Temperature Change VR Research

Dreams PSVR Support: Media Molecule Paying EU Players For VR Testing

Here’s Every Track Getting New Modes In Today’s Free Beat Saber Update

Watch: Pokémon Go Is Getting AR Occlusion On Select Android Devices

Panasonic Targets 2021 For Its Slim VR Glasses

SideQuest Celebrates 1 Year And Reaches 500 Approved Titles Available

Pico Neo 2 And Its Eye Tracking Variant Now Available Worldwide

Report: PS5 Event Tentatively Scheduled For June 3

New Star Wars VR Game, Tales From The Galaxy’s Edge, Announced

HP’s Next-Gen Reverb G2 Specifications And Price Revealed

Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz Steps Down Citing ‘Focused’ Direction

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CR Deck Mk.1 Is An Open Source AR Headset Based On Project North Star With Ultraleap Hand-Tracking

Today AR headset manufacturer Combine Reality revealed the CR Deck Mk.1, an open source AR headset based on Project North Star that utilizes Ultraleap hand-tracking. A Kickstarter campaign is coming soon.

Details are scarce so far, but Combine Reality unveiled images and short video clips of the new AR headset on Twitter. Utilizing the open source Project North Star program and Ultraleap’s hand-tracking, it aims to deliver an accessible development kit for AR developers that’s “easily remixable with off-the-shelf components & modules” according to the announcement tweet.

On the official Combine Reality website, it states this will be:

An open-source, community-driven AR hardware platform with Unity and SteamVR integration, built around the world’s most advance optical hand-tracking technology. Featuring brilliant 1440x1600px per eye displays at up to 120Hz.

cr deck mk.1 ar headset side view cr deck mk.1 ar headset front angle view

Combine Reality also showed colorized teaser images of a CR Deck Mk.2 prototype that are purely just sketches, not even actual renders, with an embedded Intel Real Sense SLAM module. Reportedly it’ll be included in some capacity in the upcoming Kickstarter campaign as well.

That’s everything we know right now. For more specs and details on the construction of the headset, check out this development blog.

If you want to learn more you can sign up for a newsletter that will let you know once the Kickstarter campaign goes live. The campaign appears to be for an “injection molded version of the Project North Star headset” that will bypass the need for 3D printing. They’ve also got details on how you can build your own Project North Star headset using from Smart Prototyping. The About Us page mentions it’s possible

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Watch: Pokémon Go Is Getting AR Occlusion On Select Android Devices

Pokemon Go is getting a major new feature; AR occlusion. Or it is on some Android devices, anyway.

Niantic announced today that select Android devices will be able to participate in a beta test that introduces a ‘Reality Blending’ feature while using AR in Pokémon Go. The beta will begin in June and is essentially a form of occlusion for Pokémon Go that will allow the game’s sprites to be blocked or hide behind real-world objects.

The ‘reality blending’ beta will be available from June for select players with a Samsung Galaxy S9, Samsung Galaxy S10 and Google Pixel 3 or Pixel 4. Niantic says that the feature will only be available to a limited number of players on those devices first, and that support for more devices will be added in the near future. Check the occlusion out in action in the GIF below.

According to Niantic, with the reality blending feature, “Pokémon will be able to hide behind a real object or be occluded by a tree or table blocking its path, just like a Pokémon would appear in the physical world.”

Pokemon Go occlusion is something fans have been asking for for some time. It should stand to make that game that big more immersive. In fact, Niantic itself first teased the feature two years ago now.

However, this isn’t the only update that game will receive — users will soon be able to take part in an opt-in feature called PokéStop Scanning, which brings the Portal Scanning feature from Niantic’s other title, Ingress, to Pokémon Go. This will mean Level 40 Trainers will be able to contribute 3D maps of PokéStops and Gyms by walking around and uploading images of those places with their phones.

Besides generating dynamic 3D maps of points of interest in the game, this new feature will also allow future improvements where Niantic can “tie virtual objects to real world locations and provide Pokémon with spatial and contextual awareness of their surroundings. For instance, this awareness will help Snorlax find that perfect patch of grass to nap on or give Clefairy a tree to hide behind.”

All these new Pokémon Go features will be available in a limited capacity to select players starting from June.

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Sketchfab Launches App-Free AR Support For Enterprise Customers

Sketchfab announced today that they are launching app-free AR support for enterprise customers. This will allow companies to leverage AR to show off their products via a simple new button that can be implemented into an embedded Sketchfab model.

While we’ve seen many companies implement mobile AR over the last few years, this new offering from Sketchfab is a clean solution that requires no app install on the user’s device. Enterprise customers can now provide an AR button on their embedded models, which will use iOS’ AR Quick Look feature and Android’s Scene Viewer to display the Sketchfab model immediately in AR without the need for any external app installation. You can see a screenshot of an example Sketchfab model displayed in AR below.

sketchfab ar

On desktop devices, clicking the AR button will show a QR code that will launch straight into the model’s AR view when scanned with a phone. The company says the new AR features will work with existing models as well — all 3D models uploaded to Sketchfab are automatically converted to the file formats required for AR in iOS and Android. Companies will be able to check the scale of their AR models, and adjust accordingly, using Sketchfab’s 3D editor.

This is a big step for Sketchfab, a platform which recently passed 3 million members. While these features mark an expansion of its AR capabilities at an enterprise level, the Sketchfab platform is also frequently used by the VR community to upload and host 3D models, whether they be captures of real objects or made in VR apps such as Tilt Brush, Quill and the Masterpiece Studio Suite.

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A New Children’s Book Uses VR And AR To Create Immersive Storytelling

A new children’s book, The Case of the Missing Cleopatra, aims to combine traditional storytelling methods with mobile AR and VR technologies, giving children new interactive ways to experience the narrative.

The Case of the Missing Cleopatra is a collaboration from Museimo, a London-based educational technology company, and AR Market, an Italy-based AR publisher for children. The book is described as a “fictional investigation that features both AR activated challenges and mobile VR worlds within the context of the book.”

AR Cleopatra game

From the provided screenshots, it looks like kids will be able to use a phone or tablet on certain pages of the book in order to reveal certain interactive content. Similarly, the kit comes with a cardboard VR headset, which kids can use to investigate an Egyptian environment, as pictured below.

case of missing cleopatra book vr

As the name implies, the narrative deals with the disappearance of Egyptian Pharaoh Cleopatra. The VR and AR elements will further the narrative from the book, allowing the kids to use the AR and VR segments to search for more clues as to how and why Cleopatra disappeared.

The book was released in December last year and costs €29, including both the book itself and a cardboard headset, to be used with mobile phones to experience the VR content. The accompanying app, which is required to run the VR and AR content, is available for free on both Android and iOS.

The book is suitable for children aged 7 and above, and is available to purchase on the AR Market site online.

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Samsung Rolls Out Star Wars AR Experience For Galaxy Phones

The galaxy from far, far away is getting a little bit closer this holiday season by way of Samsung right alongside the release of the latest Star Wars film, Rise of Skywalker.

This week an augmented reality (AR) experience called Invasion with Galaxy developed by R/GA (in collaboration with Pl.ai, Disney, ILM, Edelman, Starcom, VerifiedWorks, Publicis Sapient, Merkle, and HelloWorld) rolled out to many Samsung Galaxy smartphones around major cities such as Los Angelse, New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, and more. The AR experience is exclusive to the ‘Members’ app on Galaxy smartphones. It’ll roll out nationally across all US states and Puerto Rico starting on December 23 until January 2.

If the app is updated on your phone and you’re in a compatible area, you just scan the environment for a few seconds then point your device up at the sky. Depending on which day it is, one of the iconic ships from Star Wars will appear.

As you can see in the footage below, the ships are very high-quality models and will zoom through the air, complete with sound effects, as if they’re really there in the city. It’s sort of like a more involved version of the Playground stickers introduced on the Google Pixel camera app. Most of those are relatively stationary with a bit of movement but they don’t actually move through your environment like a ship flying through the air does.

“We wanted to celebrate our Galaxy owners this holiday season and bring them an experience that capitalizes on this cultural moment by taking their favorite starships from the film and bringing them to skies, where they belong,” Rodrigo Burdman, R/GA creative director, said in a prepared statement.

If you get the chance to try it out let us know what you think down in the comments below!

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Minecraft Earth Was Downloaded 1.2 Million Time In Its First Week In The US

Minecraft Earth (our coverage hub) came out in the U.S. in early access form on November 12, and the augmented reality take on the popular exploration and creation game hit 1.2 million downloads in the country in its first week, according to market analysts Sensor Tower.

Minecraft Earth is available for iOS and Android devices. You can use your smartphone’s camera to place a Minecraft world into the real one.

The free-to-play title is having a slow roll-out across the world during this early access phase, starting in Iceland and New Zealand in October. Minecraft Earth has been downloaded a total of 2.5 million times.

This is technically an early access period for the game, so it’s not entirely fair to compare it to other U.S. mobile AR launches. Still, to give you some idea, Pokémon Go had about 32.7 million installs in the U.S. in its first week. The more modest Harry Potter: Wizards Unite had 3.1 million.

The normal version of Minecraft is one of the biggest hits in gaming history, selling over 176 million copies.


This article by Mike Minotti originally appeared on VentureBeat.

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