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Augmented Reality in 2016 #crystalball

No new year starts without new previews and predictions. What will 2016 bring for augmented reality?

First of all best wishes to everyone! May 2016 bring you all health and happiness and wonderful new augmented reality projects. In good tradition we try to look forward and predict what will happen in the world of AR this year.

Continued shakedown AR platforms

At Dutch Rose Media we expect further disruptive changes amongst the augmented reality platform vendors. Last year we saw Apple take over Metaio and PTC buy Vuforia. Because of the latter we expect a significant price change in the Vuforia services somewhere Q1, early Q2. So far still some vendors are independent. Will it stay that way?

The big 3 enter augmented reality

Google has been working on the Google Glass and now Project Tango. Microsoft has announced the HoloLens. Apple bought Metaio and is hiring lots of AR engineers. And what about the mysterious Magic Leap? Or Meta? 2016 is still too early for them to hit the mass market, but we will definitely be hearing from them all a lot. Some showcases will impress us all and will ready the market for these new products. Will glasses in the end replace our smartphones?

Virtual reality and Augmented reality

In 2015 Virtual Reality hit mass market prices with the Google Cardboard, with an acceptable VR experience. It triggered a new hype of attention for VR and AR in its wake. We are being invited to speak about augmented and virtual reality uses at symposia which are overbooked every time. Attendees are the innovators in their industry from retail to manufacturing, for education, support and marketing.

Mature use of technology

It is not only visible in attendees of symposia, but we see many more projects that integrate augmented reality in a business application as part of their product, service or experience. MIT has launched a Reality Editor in December 2015. LG has announced to introduce a robot vacuumcleaner with AR interface. Both use the concept of the internet of things in combination with augmented reality. The goal is to link the real world to the digital information without having to know the right words for Google, or to use a device specific control. More than before there is a solid business case for the choice for AR. It is no longer trial & error.

Rise of 3D in AR

We have seen 3D content published in an augmented reality scene for some years now, but last year introduced 3D object recognition and 3D scanners and major improvement in creating 3D scenes in AR. 3D content, whilst the most expensive to create, will have more uses because of these technologies. The real world is in 3D and for eons we have been using 2D images to communicate the complex structures that make our world. There is no dispute that using virtual and augmented reality with 3D content will make our lives easier in more ways that we can foresee.

Happy New Year!

So we go forward, step by step, into the future. Want to join us in this journey? Then subscribe to our newsletter, or stay tuned. Have your own augmented reality story to share? Drop us an email at info@dutchrosemedia.com.