Augmented reality (AR) will be majorly adopted in the retail sector - but not in the way many have predicted, according to a new report from ABI Research.

The analyst firm said that interest in AR will be driven by the retail workforce and online shoppers.

AR experiences can be of extreme use for online customers who are unable to interact with the physical products they plan to buy. For in-store employees, AR promises to deliver operational efficiencies and increase the quality of the service...

Opening its World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) this week, Apple announced a string of updates to its AR (augmented reality) framework ARKit - a key development in a field the tech company is pitching its long-term success on.  

The update comes after Apple announced that 13 million apps had been downloaded using the framework since its debut in September 2017, with some 47% of that figure driven by a surge in the popularity of

International Data Corporation (IDC) Canada has announced the latest release of its IDC's Worldwide Semiannual Augmented and Virtual Reality Spending Guide forecasting Canada's hardware, software and services spending on the two technologies combined is set to total C$602 million by 2018, increasing to $8 billion by 2022 at a CAGR of 90%.

Consumer, healthcare, and retail, powering immersive and realistic images, sounds, and experiences that simulate physical presence in a virtual environment will lead...

Advertising, search and commerce are the three main segments that will drive the expansion of augmented reality (AR) beyond Snapchat and Pokemon Go, according to new research from Strategy Analytics.

The report was published by the analyst firm's Wireless Media Strategies (WMS) arm and titled 'Advertising, Commerce and Search Move Augmented Reality From Fun to Function'.

As the AR is still in its budding stage, Apple’s ARKit and Google S ARCore SDKs have recently allowed access to the...

Extended-reality (XR) technologies suggest a future of cinema-calibre, interactive content that enhances our physical environment in inspirational and useful ways. The positive potential of XR is vast, and many applications are clearly beneficial, especially in vertical markets.

The experience of using an augmented-reality (AR) headset on an assembly line, for example, so as to superimpose digital content over the physical environment in order to aid performance and safety, is a finite and circumscribed user...

Sotheby's International Realty Affiliates has announced that its real estate focussed AR app is now available on Apple iOS devices, iPad and iPhone. 

The Curate by Sotheby's International Realty app was made available for download from the Google Play Store earlier in 2018. The roomy-powered mobile app brings a home’s virtual staging pictures from flat, two-dimensional perspectives into AR allowing home buyers to virtually furnish or decorate their homes prior to fixing a purchase...

A new study suggests that the UK has an oversized impact on the virtual and augmented reality spaces, with companies specialised in AR and VR generating £660 million in sales, accounting for an estimated 9% of the global market.  Furthermore, with appropriate support, this figure could reach more than £1 billion in 2018.

These impressive sales figures are the work of 1,000 companies which employ 4,500 people, which suggests there are a quite a few small businesses in the mix. However,...

While VR headsets have become reasonably widespread with good retail availability, AR headsets like the Microsoft HoloLens and Magic Leap One remain restricted to developers and other professionals due to their high asking price and limited availability. However, other companies like Apple, Samsung and now Google are all reportedly working on AR headsets. News of the Google AR headset broke this weekend, so here's what you need to know.

German periodical Winfuture.de

With Zara set to bring mannequins to life in its stores and Kantar starting up a new consultancy specifically applying virtual reality to the retail sector, it appears visual tech is enjoying another stint in the limelight.

Instinctively, as marketers our gut reaction to this is; "Why now? What problem...

A new report by QYResearchReports.com has outlined the challenges as well as trends associated with the global VR headsets market and offered a detailed analysis of the future growth opportunities.

“Global Virtual Reality Headsets Sales Market Report 2018” aims to reinforce the decision-making capacity of readers, potential investors and new entrants in the VR headset market by offering them with financial performance reports of prominent players, their M&A strategy news, the challenges they...

Numerous reports have emerged that Intel is to shut down its New Devices Group, effectively bringing its costly foray into the wearables market to a close for now. The company has made several attempts, and spent several hundred million dollars, trying to break into the wearables market.

All current employees will be relocated to other divisions within the company or laid off, according to the reports.

The New Devices Group’s last major project was the Vaunt smartglasses, which promised to use advanced...

Virtual reality (VR) social network vTime has secured $7.6 million in a series A funding round that will be invested in the R&D of a new augmented reality (AR) version of the app coming towards the end of 2018.

In addition, the funding will be utilised to speed up the worldwide growth of vTime as well as in product development.

Martin Kenwright, CEO of UK-based vTime, commented: "vTime offers users the most immersive and intuitive way to engage with others in VR from wherever they are. The...

Smartglass manufacturer Osterhout Design Group (ODG) has formulated an all-in-one vision and oxygen solution in the form of a heads-up display (HUD) mask that uses the same AR technology from its smartglasses to help pilots in emergency landings in an unlikely situation where the cockpit is filled with smoke.

ODG has worked with FedEx Express to develop the easy-to-use and reusable prototype mask named SAVED (Smoke Assured Vision Enhanced Display) for their pilots. The smartglass maker aims to market its...

People who suffer from Parkinson’s disease can feel a lot of social fear or shame with regards to their symptoms. A recent study by Parkinson’s UK found that 40% of sufferers feel the need to try and hid their symptoms in public.

The reasons behind this are not wanting to be embarrass others (63%), the fear of being judged (34%) or thinking that their symptoms are not socially acceptable (32%). The...

Leap Motion has jumped into the AR pool with the announcement of a platform and headset called Project North Star. The gesture interface company claims that the device would cost less than $100 if it hit large-scale production.

If this is true, the project would cost signifcnatly less than the HoloLens, currently costing $3,000. The company has so far ruled it out of any serious competition with its larger rivals, however, emphasising that it is not a headset company.

Instead, the company sees Project...

The US Army is set to begin testing an AR system called HUD 3.0 sometime in 2019, according to a report in Breaking Defense.

The HUD 3.0 system reportedly consists of a helmet-mounted system that projects a range of different information onto a soldier’s field of view. The concept is based on the heads-up display currently utilised on fighter planes, which was introduced in the late 1970s.

The kind of information that would be shown to soldiers using the system would be their location in relation to the rest...

More than 13 million augmented reality (AR) apps have been installed using Apple’s ARKit framework in its first six months according to data from Sensor Tower – with almost half of these coming from gaming.

The figures suggest a steady upward trend since the platform debuted in September last year. Previous analysis from one month after iOS 11 launched saw the number at around three million. Back then, ARKit-only gaming apps represented just over one third (35%) of all installs. Today, the number...

Students at New York have developed an app that uses AR and machine learning to translate sign language into spoken words, and vice versa. Unfortunately, many deaf people still feel that they live fairly isolated lives, with things like appointments and going out often massively complicated due to the lack of general knowledge of sign language throughout the hearing population.

The ARSL app uses computer vision models to translate sign language into spoken language and the other way around in real time. The...

In the pantheon of DIY tasks, putting together IKEA furniture is considered to be relatively straight forward. This doesn’t mean, however, that the process is an easy and satisfying one. On the contrary, even relatively simple IKEA projects seem to involve the ‘rage freakout’ stage that seemingly accompanies every DIY task.

While the act of throwing tools across the room because the kit doesn’t include enough screws (although they are actually under your coat) or yelling about how the...

French cosmetic giant L’Oreal has announced that it has bought Canadian AR company ModiFace, signalling its intention to make a significant move into AR in the near future.

ModiFace has developed technology that allows for 3D virtual make-up, colour and skin diagnosis by tracking facial features and colour. The company’s proprietary technology is already utilised by almost all of the major beauty brands, which means this is a big move by the French company.

The company’s 70 employees will...