Augmented reality (AR) on smartphones has been soaring to new heights thanks to breakthroughs in AR algorithms.
In July 2016, Niantic and Nintendo released Pokemon Go, triggering millions of downloads in one week. One month later, social media giant Tencent organized the virtual Olympic torch relay on smartphones, encouraging 100 million to use AR techniques provided by HiScene.
The trend became clearer in 2017, with Snapchat’s release of World Lenses7 and the popularity of Meitu’s facial-up app. These apps each have hundreds of millions of active users.
In this survey of academic contributions driving augmented reality’s commercial potential and of the industry trends advancing software and hardware developments and emerging applications, the author offers advice on how startups hoping to leverage these advances can compete against senior tech tycoons. Read more in the July—September 2017 issue of IEEE MultiMedia. (Login may be required for full text.)
About Lori Cameron
Lori Cameron is a Senior Writer for the IEEE Computer Society and currently writes regular features for Computer magazine, Computing Edge, and the Computing Now and Magazine Roundup websites. Contact her at l.cameron@computer.org. Follow her on LinkedIn.
