Augmented reality for the mass market

How pleasing! More exciting news from the augmented reality (AR) corner. No less than 3 providers have announced AR glasses. One of them has already been on the AR market since the beginning of the year with a Google Tango-capable device – Lenovo. With daystAR, Lenovo is now presenting a pair of glasses that work in the same way as the Microsoft Hololens without additional hardware. In collaboration with Disney, they already have various games in the development pipeline (Starwars Light Saber / Starwars Holochess). Similar to Lenovo’s launch, a new player is presenting its AR highlight – Mira. It is to be the first headset aimed at the end consumer. All that is needed is an iPhone 6 or newer, which is integrated into the glasses and stuck to the forehead, so to speak. By reflecting the image on a glass pane, the user can see the real world with holographic content in a 60° field of vision. With a purchase price of just under $100, AR glasses are now to be made accessible to the mass market. Zapbox, which aims to be the Google Cardboard of AR, goes one step further towards reaching the masses. For just $30, you get the cardboard box including 10 markers, which have to be laid out to measure the room when used.

A trend can therefore be observed towards AR solutions that are developed directly for the end user. Numerous platforms (Lenovo, Apple, Microsoft, etc.) will be able to reach a very large number of users in the future with the almost limitless possibilities of augmented reality. The hardware required for this is becoming increasingly affordable or, as Forbes writes, “These are the kinds of developments that make disruptive VR and AR technology one of the great business stories of this century.”