i3 - March/April 2018 - 16

Tech

By Murray Slovick

A T EC H TO WATC H

A Milestone Year Ahead in AR

 S 

martphones are now in 82 percent of U.S. homes according
to CTA and are helping to drive the market for mobile
augmented reality (AR) apps and tools. With AR, digital
information and the real world collide. Unlike virtual reality (VR),
AR content is overlaid on the immediate physical environment
users see before their eyes, blending digital components (sound,
video, graphics or GPS data) with real life, using either special
eyeglasses or a smartphone's display and camera. You can see
through and around AR content because light comes through at
all times and reaches your eyes the same way it normally does.
Apple and Google entered the game last
year via their respective announcements
for ARKit with the iOS 11-powered
iPhone 8, and ARCore, Google's platform to deliver AR capabilities to

Android smartphones. Both ARKit and
ARCore are software development kits
(SDKs), which include software libraries
and tools for developers to build applications that blend digital objects and

information with the environment
around the user, taking apps beyond
the screen and freeing them to
interact with the real world in new ways.
The AR category expanded at
CES 2018 with a ten percent jump in
exhibit space devoted to the Augmented
Reality Marketplace.
CES 2018 showed the pump is primed
for a milestone year in AR. CTA research
predicts that unit shipments of VR/AR
headsets and eyewear will grow to 4.9 million units this year (representing a 25 percent increase) and tallying $1.2 billion in
revenues (an 18 percent increase). These
apps and games are just the beginning of
what this new technology can deliver.

A more sophisticated,
enterprise version of
Google Glass called the
Vuzix Blade debuted at
CES. Vuzix Blade delivers
enhanced functionality for
hands-free business and
consumer mobile applications accessing real-time
data, work instructions,
photography and HD
video recording. Vuzix
Blade Smart Glasses
weigh less than three
ounces and supports Wi-Fi
and Bluetooth interfaces.
Blade has a larger, brighter
display than the original
Glass as well as full color,
communications with
Amazon's voice-enabled
digital assistant Alexa, and
a built in camera for interactive AR apps.
16

MARCH/APRIL 2018

NVIDIA's new Drive AI
platform focuses on putting AR into vehicles to
transform the driving
experience. NVIDIA's SDK,
dubbed Drive AR, offers
developers a means to
allow them to build experiences that tap into computer vision, graphics and
artificial intelligence (AI)
capabilities to overlay
information about road
conditions, points of
interest and other realworld locations using
interactive in-car displays.

Silicon Valley startup
DigiLens introduced its
MonoHUD display for consumers. At the Texas
Instruments Village at CES
2018, attendees experienced the hands-free communications and control
application for motorcycles
via a full-faced BMW helmet
fitted with a heads-up display, enabling the projection of data directly into
the rider's view. A voiceactivated app lets riders
access GPS, bike status and
answer phone calls and
text messages while keeping their eyes on the road.
The color MonoHUD AR
display features a user fieldof-view of 105 degrees, and
an AR display field-of-view
of 25 degrees diagonal.

uSensAR presented a single camera smartphone
AR engine optimized for
less expensive Android
models to include products beyond the top-tier
iPhone, Pixel and Samsung
phones targeted by ARKit
and ARCore. The uSensAR
platform employs computer vision, machine
learning and smartphone
hardware. uSensAR partnered with Spreadtrum
Communications, a semiconductor company, to
enable AR camera effects
for the native camera app
in the Spreadtrum SC9853
chipset. An SDK will be
available mid-year.

Startup WayRay showed
its in-car heads-up display
solutions. The Navion
holographic AR navigator
aftermarket solution fits
onto a dashboard to display driving directions, trip
details and real-time indicators for pedestrians.
Content is projected on
the windshield so the
driver still sees the road.
WayRay is in talks with
OEMs including China's
SAIC, Honda and other
manufacturers to integrate
its technology into windscreens for future vehicles.
WayRay also demoed its
True AR SDK for developers and announced its AR
Developers Contest and
Hackathon with a prize
fund worth $160,000.
I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

Vuzix Blade: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images

NEW AT CES 2018



i3 - March/April 2018

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