Lifeboat Foundation

Cool

Shipments of augmented reality hardware, which combine real-world and virtual images in the user’s field of view, are forecast by market research firm IDC to ramp up over the next few years. Unlike virtual reality hardware, which tends to be more geared toward gaming, AR hardware is particularly suited for enterprise use, such as architecture, equipment repair and maintenance,

Product design and medical procedures, to name a few. IDC predicted that VR hardware will take off first, but AR will catch up, with combined devices markets seeing hardware shipments exceeding.

Continue reading “Virtual Reality Projected To Lead Before Augmented Reality” »

Nice

The consumer version of Google Glass smart wearable probably won’t be coming to the market anytime soon, but it seems like the project is far from dead. Namely, one of the startups which came to being after Google originally revealed its hi-tech headset several years ago is now raising new capital in order to bring Google’s optical head-mounted display into more hospitals and other health care facilities. The company in question is Augmedix, one of the ten official “Google Glass for Work” partners. Its main activity is developing software for wearable devices utilized in the medical industry, i.e. co-developing inventions which should make doctors’ lives easier. As Augmedix’s CEO Ian Shakil puts it, the doctors are “engaging with patients in front of them” while his company’s inventions are taking care of the “burdensome work in the background”.

Augmedix managed to raise $17 million of strategic investment capital from five institutions: TriHealth Inc., Sutter Health, Catholic Health Initiatives, Dignity Health, and a fifth, yet unnamed entity. This is the second round of funding the Silicon Valley company managed to secure in just over a year after raising $16 million in 2015. In total, the groups which financed Augmedix’s endeavors represent more than 100,000 health care providers. Naturally, the company can’t yet aim to deliver 100,000 of smart wearables designed for the medical industry, but it’s slowly getting there. Specifically, it’s currently providing equipment and services to hundreds of physicians and surgeons and is hoping to do the same with “thousands” more by 2017. No concrete figures have been provided by Augmedix, though the startup did confirm that it’s currently achieving a “multi-million dollar revenue” on a yearly basis.

Continue reading “New Funding Could Bring Google Glass To More Hospitals” »

Nokia OZO shows how augmented reality (AR) can help reduce field force errors significantly.

Over the past few days, Wired has published some articles that give us the closest look yet at the ambitious, enigmatic augmented reality company called Magic Leap. They’ve left us with both a lot of fascinating possibilities and a lot of questions, because most of Magic Leap’s technological explanations are couched in the language of either science fiction or, well, magic. As poetic as “[talking] to the GPU of the brain” and “dreaming with your eyes open” sounds, this is probably the clearest and most interesting description of Magic Leap’s work in the piece:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=DF7OvoHzL8I

While Google works to bring a polished Glass device to market, wearables startup Innovega is taking head-mounted displays a step further: contact lenses that interact with full HD glasses.

VERY nifty!

Wired just published a giant feature on Magic Leap, the lavishly-funded, and very secretive mixed reality startup that we know almost nothing about. Professional thoughtfluencer Kevin Kelly got impressive access to the startup and reveals some new details about what the hell they’re doing. There’s a headset! And it is capable of what you see in the video above, which is like tripping, if LSD made you hallucinate your calendar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmdXJy_IdNw

Continue reading “Magic Leap’s Latest Demo is Like Tripping Balls” »

Hmmm; not sure if I can watch given my tolerance level of seeing blood.

Cutting-edge technology has a way of snaking itself into the medical field. Over the past few years, for example, we’ve seen 3D printers used to create prescription medication, prosthetic limbs, casts, replacement bones, homemade cosmetic braces and even cartilage implants.

Now, we’re beginning to see some of the ways that virtual reality will impact modern medicine with a company by the name of Medical Realities leading the way.

Continue reading “Watch a live surgery take place in virtual reality on April 14th” »

Interesting

The software can be used by pilots to superimpose information onto pilots’ screens as they circle above areas, which include one San Bernardino mosque after the shooting last year.

Continue reading “US spy planes use AR software above major US cities and ‘target Muslim areas’” »

Samsung is exploring the development of a contact lens that can project images directly into the users’ eye, take photographs and connect wirelessly to a smartphone, a patent application has revealed.

The South Korean copyright authority has published a 29-page application made by the consumer electronics firm two years ago, reported the technology blog Sammobile, offering a rare insight into a science fiction vision of a future technology that could be closer than we think.

The lens could overlay internet-connected services directly into the user’s line of sight, in an example of what is known as augmented reality. It could also discreetly – even covertly – take photographs. The device would be controlled by eye movements or blinking, according to the patent, and it would connect with a smartphone.

Continue reading “Samsung is developing a contact lens camera, triggered by blinking, that can also project images into the eye” »