Awesome Augmented Reality

Wist uses your iPhone or Oculus Quest headset to capture live 3D models of memories and lets you play them back as an augmented reality experience in the same location. Because of technical limitations, the models and textures have a weird torn-edge look straight out of science fiction. Sign up to join the waitlist.

Software engineer Stephen Rogers aka TheCaptainSpain is developing CoasterMania, a virtual reality/augmented reality game that lets you build tiny roller coasters in your living room. This brief demo video shows off its Line Rider-style gameplay on a Meta Quest VR headset. Enjoy more fun gameplay footage here.

This augmented reality app from Signal-to-Noise lets you visualize the sounds that vinyl records produce. Aim your iOS device’s camera at a spinning record, and turn up the volume. Sonic analysis software generates a real-time graph of the waveforms overlaid on each disc as it turns.

This interactive educational system helps students learn about the physical properties of structures. It combines a set of beams, levers, pivot points, and other parts that attach to a backboard which work in concert with augmented reality projections to show the physics at play when forces are applied.

The Rainbow Road levels are some of the most memorable in the Mario Kart games. Mutch Games built a real-world replica of the SNES course with LED lighting and mechanized Thwomps. He combined the track with gameplay footage using the Switch AR game Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit. He’s built several other levels too.

Looking for something fun to do today? Why not visit with a giraffe, a zebra, or maybe a penguin? Thanks to Google, you can enjoy the company of 50 new animals using augmented reality tech on your phone. Using the Google mobile app, search for an animal, then tap “View in 3D” to invite these virtual pets into your world.

Firefighters need every advantage they can get. Sam Cossman of Qwake Technologies met with Adam Yamaguchi of The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation to show off the mask his company has developed which can overlay high-contrast outlines and heat signatures of objects even when they’re obscured by smoke or darkness.

Artist and programmer Cyril Diagne shows of a slick tech demo of an augmented reality app that can snap pictures of real world objects and drop then directly into Adobe Photoshop. Simply point, click, and aim your phone where you want to paste the object. Source code available here.

Watching live theatre can be challenging for deaf people. Sign interpreters and captioning boards help, but this new tech developed at the National Theatre in London gives people with hearing loss a much better experience – displaying captions that float right in front of their eyes. Freethink explains how it works.

This innovative headset gaming system turns a blank tabletop game board into a richly interactive 3D environment. Players wear special glasses which let them see holographic imagery, and control the game using a wireless wand. It looks legit, but it’s not a cheap setup for multiple players.

Celebrate your love for space exploration with this duo of official NASA goodies from Astro Reality. You’ll get a nifty mug inspired by the the abstract shapes of space, along with an embossed hardcover journal, each of which pair with an augmented reality application to display imagery and information about space travel.

Learning to weld can be a daunting task. But with this slick bit of technology from Miller Welders, students can practice using an augmented reality welding headset which lets them practice all they need, and get detailed feedback on their progress.

Minecraft Earth is an upcoming free-to-play augmented reality mobile game for iOS and Android devices. It will let you build small or life-size structures with the real world as your canvas, as well as collect and battle mobs. A closed beta will launch this summer 2019.

AstroReality celebrates NASA’s 60th Anniversary with an augmented reality gift set, which includes this beautiful notebook. Available with a white or gray cover, the notebook has a few pages that feature animation and enhanced content when viewed with AstroReality’s mobile app.

Here’s something that all online shoe stores should have. Wannaby’s Wanna Kicks is an augmented reality app for iOS. It projects 3D models of commercially available sneakers on your feet. The models are sized to your feet and accurately change perspective when you move.

Fologram combines computer-aided design with the holographic capabilities of Microsoft’s HoloLens headset to help in assembling even complex objects. The hologram can overlay exactly where each piece of the build should go, as well as an outline of the finished product.

Nissan is working on an augmented reality system called “Invisible-to-Visible” that uses sensors on the car as well as data from the cloud to enable drivers to see what’s around and ahead of them via a pair of glasses or a heads up display.

Students from the University of Washington created a technique that can create 3D animation out of a single photo. Called Photo Wake-Up, it also lets the user change the pose of the person. Viewing the effect in virtual or augmented reality is also possible.

Rocketbook’s Rocketboard is a set of four beacons that let you cleanly digitize the contents of any whiteboard, even when photographed off-angle. Simply place the markers on the corners of the whiteboard and use the app to capture and share its contents.

Bose’s Frames are sunglasses that have miniature speakers in their temples, directing sound into their wearer’s ears. You can also use them to take calls and call up voice assistants. Bose will also plans to release an app which delivers contextual audio based on location.

Samsung ups its PC mixed-reality headset game with its latest device. The HMD Odyssey+ has AMOLED displays which double the perceived resolution to 1233 ppi, reducing that annoying screen-door effect. It has a wide 110º field of vision, built-in sensors, 360º sound, and more.

Amazon’s mobile app has a new augmented reality feature called Part Finder. It’s meant to identify screws, nuts, bolts or other types of fasteners to make shopping for them easier. Take a photo of the fastener and the app will try to identify it with links to purchase the item.

Lightform’s upcoming system allows anyone with a computer and a projector to create the sort of projection mapping visuals heretofore reserved for the pros. It can scan objects, then generate intricate projected images that perfectly match their surfaces. More on Tested.