Seven Events You Should Know About AR (Augmented Reality) -THE VR FUND Releases 2019 Chaos Map

The usual thing about the Venture Reality Fund, a fund that invests in virtual reality games, apps, or augmented reality, has arrived for the first time in a quarter. So, with the guidance of Tipatat Chenavasin, the co-founder of the fund, I will summarize this matter into seven items.

1: AR (Augmented Reality) continues to grow

The Venture Reality Fund currently has more than 380 companies listed in the AR landscape, an increase of 33% from 2018. Apple's rumored AR hardware is lagging behind, but the momentum of other companies doesn't seem to slow down.

2: HMD (Head Mounted Display) AR is at a turning point

The HMD is shifting from the first generation to the new generation. As a result, early players such as Daqri, CastAR and ODG disappeared, and Meta is back as Meta View.

This generation of AR companies, such as Magic Leap and RealWear, continues to raise money, and Microsoft is about to release version 2 of Hololens. And THE VR FUND is convinced that this will have a big impact on the introduction of AR to the enterprise in the near future.

On the other hand, for general consumers, hardware specialized for something continues to be released. For example, the smart glasses "Focals" developed by North, AR swimming goggles from Form, and audio sunglasses from Bose AR. Neither Microsoft nor Magic Leap have even announced when consumer products will be available. HMD AR devices for general use will take a year or two.

3: Enterprise drives growth

For software, the focus of growth may be on enterprise solutions and content creation tools in multiple markets, such as the automotive industry, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare. Microsoft's $ 479 million contract with the US military at Hololens is the largest case in the AR market.

4: AR wants a new type of content

In the tool category, there is an expansion in tools for general purposes and new specific volume capture (* technology that visualizes a three-dimensional object such as a person as a volume as it is) content. The growing interest in this volumetric capture, which can be used in both AR and VR, is of course due to the advent of 5G networks.

5: AR content for consumers is alive and well

AR fans among consumers continue to grow, especially on mobile devices. The game is the best of them, with Niantic's Pokemon GO and Harry Potter Magic Alliance, Tencent's "Let's Hunt Monsters" in China, and Minecraft Earth. And, of course, stupid AR social apps like Snap are still growing and are a factor in boosting their installs.

6: Mobile AR 2.0 is coming

The next-generation cloud-enabled AR software development kit (SDK), which will come out by the end of the year, will provide richer interactive experiences, persistence, global mapping, multi-user capabilities and more. .. Together, these will be a major step forward in the mobile AR ecosystem.

7: Investment continues

AR is still Genesis, and the revolution in HMD AR and mobile AR platforms is strengthening the ecosystem and continues to provide value to invest in. After all, it can be said that the future of AR is shining brightly as it has entered a new growth phase.

[Via VentureBeat] @VentureBeat

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