Tag: ar glasses

Though the company had been working hard to create its own smartglasses, it has now dropped the tech.

With a number of new players in the augmented reality glasses sector – greatly pushed forward by the HoloLens by Microsoft – there have been some companies that have decided to step back or completely step out of this wearable technology space, and Qualcomm has now included itself among them.

Qualcomm has now decided to sell its AR technology business to PTC, an Internet of Things (IoT) firm.

The sale of the augmented reality business has occurred for an undisclosed sum, at the time of the writing of this article. It will include the Vuforia platform and SDK which makes it possible for partners and developers to be able to create their own AR experiences. Vuforia has been operational for about five years and has already been used for a number of sizeable projects, such as the Sesame Street mobile app, a miniaturized TARDIS, as well as the unique driving goggles that were created for Mini.

It isn’t entirely clear whether PTC intends to maintain the Vuforia augmented reality platform as it is.

The company may also be interested in the underlying AR technology but it could alter it into something of a different nature. What is known is that the company has purchased the entire business, outright.

The purchase includes everything right down to the “developer ecosystem”, which means that it is more than likely that the projects that are currently in development will be able to progress forward as they have been, at least for the moment. Anything that should come of those projects will now be the property of the new owner.

From the side of Qualcomm, though it is evident that they are stepping out of the augmented reality space, it has still said that it intends to “continue to drive computer vision technology that will unlock a wide variety of applications for consumers and businesses around the world.” No additional specifics were provided with regards to precisely what that would entail, but that is not abnormal when it comes to this type of announcement.

New AR systems could potentially make a very big difference in complex emergency response.

A team of British engineers is currently developing a new form of augmented reality technology that could become highly usable for the improvement of military operation emergency responses.

The idea is to design the AR tech into highly mobile devices that can be used while in the field.

Among the various applications for the augmented reality emergency response technology includes a portable command center the size of a briefcase. That would be easy to transport and to use in a broad range of different types of emergency situation. Another type of AR tech under development includes a form of wearable device that pilots could use as a type of portable cockpit in order to enhance their awareness.

The British engineers who are working on this augmented reality technology are from BAE Systems.

They have joined University of Birmingham researchers in order to come up with a number of concepts that involve mixed reality that provide the user with the ability to view their actual surroundings combined with virtual images, objects, video feeds, avatars and other types of usable content.

BAE Systems futurist, Nick Colosimo, explained that both virtual and AR technology are becoming increasingly commonplace in consumer products. This has opened up a broad range of potential for that market, but has also revealed the type of benefits that it could provide to the military and armed forces.

These various types of mobile device use an AR headset that has been compared to the Oculus Rift. The use of that gadget will make it possible for commanders to direct various forms of military operation, regardless of whether they involve the use of drones or troops, by viewing a virtual representation of the real situation. The device can also be implemented as a powerful training solution.

The researchers who are working on this augmented reality technology have stated that the headsets may one day be replaced with alternatives as small as eyeglasses or even contact lenses, as the tech continues to develop. University of Birmingham professor and simulation and human factors specialist, Bob Stone, explained that “Since my first virtual reality experience at NASA nearly 30 years ago, the technology has evolved from the primitive head-mounted displays and computers to today’s world where we can interact with complex virtual objects, integrated in real-time with real-world scenarios.”