The self-driving car was one of the stars at CES 2015 but prior to being fully autonomous most vehicles will have AR-enabled systems for driver assistance. Integrating live data into the automobile and putting it in the driver’s view is one of the intermediate steps. Projecting real time traffic information for drivers has been the focus of a collaboration between HERE and BMW and announced by the two partners at CES. This post on the 360Here blog describes the vision and status of the project.

SoftKinetic makes depth sensing hardware and software for cameras but in the past the technology was only available for desktop and set-top box platforms. At CES 2015, the company demonstrated the new DepthSense 3D Time of Flight (ToF) camera using the Qualcomm Vuforia mobile vision platform for Augmented Reality experiences on tablets.

Three dimensional capture and real time reconstruction of a living room was shown at one of the Vuforia stations in the Qualcomm CES booth. This post on Venture Beat summarizes how the SoftKinetic movement to mobile platforms can open the door for more use cases.

VR display maker Seebright announced that it will fund the Wave, its new project for AR, on Kickstarter beginning in February 2015. The project revealed to the public for the first time at CES is a combination of multi-mirror hardware with optics, a 9-axis controller and a software development kit that can be used in conjunction with AR authoring systems from metaio and Vuforia. 

Applications developed in Unity can also be imported to be delivered to users on the Seebright Wave. To encourage diversity in initial application development, Seebright will operate a cloud portal for developers to share code, assets and applications.

The recent post on the Download3K.com blog is trying to help readers to untangle the knot of terminology that continues to confuse people. The author gets most of the points correct.

Vuzix has been developing video and optical see-through hands-free displays for AR for over a decade. A pioneer in the segment, the company has continued to develop new products, to partner with others and grow a developer ecosystem despite competition from the likes of Google.

In an effort to maintain momentum the company spun off a defense supply business, Six15 Technologies, in 2012. As disclosed in this press release, the company’s financial condition is significantly improved by Intel’s investment. Although the focus of the announcement mentions consumer products, Vuzix’s line of enterprise displays should also benefit from the additional working capital.

CES 2015 is the event at which ODG announces its new product line for consumer customers this week.  While it wants to become an enterprise AR supplier as well, the company’s executive is quoted in Forbes as saying that the primary reason for the new product is that consumer buying decisions are faster than those of enterprise. The article includes a brief history of the companies achievements.

Crew training is one of the expensive, recurring requirements in the airline industry that can benefit from the use of Augmented Reality. One of the AREA use cases describes the concept which has been implemented by Virgin Atlantic and described in a blog post on Skift, a travel industry portal.

The financial justification is clear. New aircraft often introduce new features but when an airplane is on the ground for crew training it is not in the air generating revenues for the airline. An AR-assisted system combined with a 3D web “virtual tour” of the cabin uses a low cost model that can be set up in many places. With a tablet trainees rotate in the space, select specific parts and can learn their features quickly before boarding and beginning to work in the new model airplane.

The end of each year marks the beginning of another year filled with new opportunities. Pundits have put Augmented Reality on the list of popular new trends for at least 5 years but the technology has repeatedly failed to deliver on the promises. This year Augmented Reality returns to the list. In the IEEE Top Ten trends to watch in 2015 blog post on the Computer Society portal, wearable displays for AR lead the list and AR is also featured as its own domain and as one of the technologies to watch. Others concur. The International Business Times says in its post on top five trends in 2015 that Augmented Reality will bring new value with future hands-free AR displays powered by Magic Leap and offered by Google.

Every day millions of people put their trust in the innovations of the Boeing Company that are integrated into aircraft. The first use of AR in an industrial setting is often attributed to the company’s 1992 project to assist in harness assembly and installation. The company’s engineers continue to develop new technology for energy efficiency, operation and improving flight operation. In this blog post on IP Watchdog, Steve Brachmann explains the focus of a U.S. Patent Application entitled Ubiquitous Natural User System for Human-Machine Interaction. The ubiquitous natural user (UNU) system leverages 3D scanning and is designed for use with Augmented Reality-assisted personal displays. Separately, another patent entitled “Portable Augmented Reality” has also been granted to Boeing engineers. The patent is described for use in damage assessment and repair. Its potential uses are summarized in this article on the 4-Traders blog.

Use of cameras for Augmented Reality in the workplace will need to be accompanied by new policies regarding the appearance of faces and personal data as part of AR-enhanced systems. Finding a technological or policy solution that can balance the benefits and risks of peer-based face recognition is not easy. The first step to developing future policies will be to better understand the risks of identifying employees. In this article entitled “Face Recognition and Privacy in the Age of Augmented Reality” published in the Journal of Privacy and Confidentiality the results of new research conducted at Carnegie Mellon University are presented and analyzed in the context of state of the art AR technologies.