Augmented Reality Smart Glasses: Definition, Conceptual Insights, and Managerial Importance

During the last years, the developments of new media have revolutionized individuals’ behavior tremendously. Particularly mobile devices have developed an ‘always and everywhere online’ mentality. But what comes next? Recent developments and forecasts propose the rise of a new technology that is termed ‘Wearable Augmented Reality Devices”, where smart glasses (such as Microsoft Hololens or Google Glass) represent prominent examples. These technologies offer much potential for companies and societies, which are discussed in this article. By doing so, this paper provides managers and researchers an applied description of the technology and a discussion of how it differs from existing mobile and augmented reality technologies. Finally, a discussion of how smart glasses can increase firm value is provided.

Spotlight

Gearbox Entertainment

The Gearbox Entertainment Company, LLC is an award-winning creator and distributor of transmedia entertainment for people around the world. Gearbox Entertainment develops and publishes products through its subsidiaries, Gearbox Software and Gearbox Publishing. Gearbox Entertainment has become widely known for successful game franchises including Brothers in Arms and Borderlands, as well as acquired properties Duke Nukem and Homeworld, which it distributes across the world. Gearbox Software is an award-winning, independent developer of interactive entertainment based in Frisco, Texas. It was founded in 1999 by game industry veterans, and its first release was Half-Life: Opposing Force. Gearbox Publishing was established in 2016 with the goal of helping developers around the world bring their products to market while retaining their unique creative visions.

OTHER ARTICLES
Technologies, Virtualization

The rediscovered power of time-seasoned brand equity

Article | August 2, 2022

Discovery CEO David Zaslav has proposed that the new combined Discovery / Warner Media entity will be known as Warner Bros. Discovery. This is a recognition that leveraging brand equity will be crucial for the new-combined entity to successfully compete in the increasingly crowded direct-to-consumer (D2C) video streaming landscape. Zaslav is successfully absorbing a key lesson from Disney+’s meteoric rise to 103.6 million subscribers in less than two years since its launch: leverage deep consumer brand equity for D2C success.

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Virtualization, Media and Broadcasting

Is Microsoft moving Windows Mixed Reality VR/AR towards consumers?

Article | July 13, 2022

Recently, Bill Stillwell of Xbox fame left the gaming division to join Windows Mixed Reality, to work on "world-class consumer AR/VR experiences in the Microsoft ecosystem." Interesting. For a couple of years, Microsoft couldn't resist demonstrating its unprecedented HoloLens augmented reality tech at every single event, it felt like, using Minecraft and other random Xbox properties to showcase the potential therein. Fast forward five years to 2020 and HoloLens remains firmly in the realm of big business and the military, powering next-generation training, awareness, and productivity solutions.

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Technologies, Business

AR in B2B Sales: What to Expect

Article | August 3, 2022

The potential of augmented reality technology goes beyond games and photo filters. It can benefit B2B businesses, especially their sales departments, in more ways than one. B2B sales is about converting potential clients into customers by using all the features and benefits of your product or service. Highlighting the profit the clients will make using your product or service is your priority. But how does augmented reality (AR) play into all of this? Here are three interesting use cases of AR in B2B sales for you to look at: AR in Exhibitions: Stand Out From the Crowd At exhibitions, if you do not stand out among your competitors, you might not attract any visitors to your stand. AR can bring your stand the footfall you expect. At 2017’s North American International Auto Show, Ford used AR to attract visitors. A visitor could sit inside the car and simultaneously see what was happening under the car’s hood on a big display screen. The experience impressed visitors and earned Ford brand visibility. AR in Data Visualization: Present Interactive Insights AR helps in presenting the value of your product or service in an interactive 3D visualization. A great example of this would be IBM’s Immersive Insights, a visualization tool that presents data in 3D space. Spectators can explore and understand data insights without feeling burdened with just numbers. This technology has potential in the B2B sales space as it can simplify complex data visualization and attract your prospects with visual appeal. AR in Product Presentations: Realistic and Immersive Experience There are always aspects of your product or service that you need to highlight in front of your prospective clients in unique ways so they can see the value of your offering. AR allows you to present your product in a realistic way. IKEA used AR to help clients try their furniture in their offices and apartments by superimposing it on their surroundings with the IKEA Place app. Realtor.com and industrial machines like CAT also help customers see what the offerings look like so that they can make informed decisions even without physically interacting with the product or service. Wrapping It Up Using AR in B2B sales is still an evolving concept, but can become a substantial tool in the toolkit of B2B sales teams that want to try new things to boost their numbers.

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Virtualization

This time Amazon really does have Bond in its sights

Article | May 20, 2021

MGM, which holds the largest film and TV library in Hollywood, is finally in play – and likely to be acquired by tech major and video streaming behemoth Amazon. With a rumoured price tag of $9 billion, the deal, while substantial, is merely equivalent to 8.3% of Amazon’s Q1 2021 earnings of $108.5 billion. Indeed, the 44% year-on-year (YoY) increase for its Q1 results alone would pay for the deal more than four times over. When it comes to investment capital to deploy, the tech majors led by Amazon and Apple are in a financial class of their own. This is the kind of deal that helps to explain why AT&T was so keen cut its losses and incur a $66 billion loss on its Warner Media assets by merging the former Time Warner media major with Discovery for $43 billion in cash and receiving 71% in equity in the new combined entity in return. It also follows on from Amazon’s 15.4x increase in what it is willing to pay to secure exclusive NFL Thursday Night Football coverage for its US Amazon Prime customers.

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Spotlight

Gearbox Entertainment

The Gearbox Entertainment Company, LLC is an award-winning creator and distributor of transmedia entertainment for people around the world. Gearbox Entertainment develops and publishes products through its subsidiaries, Gearbox Software and Gearbox Publishing. Gearbox Entertainment has become widely known for successful game franchises including Brothers in Arms and Borderlands, as well as acquired properties Duke Nukem and Homeworld, which it distributes across the world. Gearbox Software is an award-winning, independent developer of interactive entertainment based in Frisco, Texas. It was founded in 1999 by game industry veterans, and its first release was Half-Life: Opposing Force. Gearbox Publishing was established in 2016 with the goal of helping developers around the world bring their products to market while retaining their unique creative visions.

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Applications

ComingSoon Expands Entertainment News Coverage

PR Newswire | October 05, 2023

Evolve Media LLC, a passion-based publisher of some of the most influential internet brands since 1996, announced that its marquee entertainment site ComingSoon is continuing to grow and expand its coverage areas. ComingSoon will expand to new coverage areas, including Bollywood With traffic up 79 percent since April 2023, ComingSoon is expanding in order to continue its rapid growth since a redesign was launched in December 2022. The site is now broadening its entertainment coverage into new areas, including Indian films and television, Korean dramas, reality television, documentaries, and true crime. All of these new verticals will be easily accessible in the site's revamped navigation bar as coverage is rolled out. ComingSoon will also further commit resources to delivering top-notch anime, documentary and horror coverage, which have become key elements of the entertainment site. It will also continue to produce top-quality features and reviews that are just as engaging as they are informative, while also conducting interviews with some of Hollywood's biggest directors and stars. "Our goal is to make ComingSoon a one-stop destination for media consumers all over the world," said Todd Jacobs, Director of Content & Operations at Evolve Media. "With these strategic investments, ComingSoon will exponentially expand their global audience." "Thanks to streaming, we've seen entertainment around the globe become pop culture phenomenons," said Tyler Treese, Frontpage Editorial Manager of Evolve Media's Entertainment and Gaming Division. "International hits like Squid Game and Jawan have shown that Korea and India are producing incredible content, while anime continues to grow in popularity. We'll finally be able to cover these areas with the news coverage they deserve, and help fans figure out the next show to binge or what film to invite their friends over to watch." About Evolve Media, LLC Evolve Media is a premium publisher of leading enthusiast destinations for influential men and women. Leveraging proprietary advertising and publishing technologies, as well as hundreds of talented content professionals, Evolve Media offers premium and engaging content to its readers, while offering marketers the tools needed to execute custom, content-led marketing solutions that reach its audience of over 78 million people globally each month.

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Hipster Bait Launches to Bring Game Dynamics and Augmented Reality to Music Discovery

Hipster Bait Ltd. | June 26, 2020

Today, Hipster Bait a music discovery platform for people ready to rock, launched with a first of its kind mobile app for music discovery. Available on iOS and Android, the Hipster Bait mobile app sends players out into the real world to hunt down and capture unreleased, exclusive music using augmented reality and location-based technology. "Great music tracks are getting laid down every day but it's harder than ever to get that music out to people and make a living while doing it," explains Michael Tension, Co-Founder of Hipster Bait. "As artists, we can't rely solely on the algorithms of over-crowded streaming services. We need to find new ways for fans to experience music." Each week, Hipster Bait releases exclusive unreleased songs from emerging artists hidden across a network of physical locations. After a player finds the song and the artist is revealed, they can easily revisit the song in their cassette box and springboard to artist platforms.

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Mobile AR Combat Game Reality Clash Begins Phased Global Rollout

vrfocus | January 17, 2019

Niantic’s Pokemon GO might be seen as the poster child for augmented reality (AR) videogames on mobile, but there are plenty of other looking to usurp the title from its podium. Today, Reality Gaming Group has announced the long-awaited arrival of its more ambitious combat experience, Reality Clash, for iOS and Android devices.Using Apple and Google’s latest ARKit and ARCore technologies, Reality Clash is set in an underground world of cryptocurrencies and hackers, where players can navigate a 3D map to defend key parts of their own real-world town, city or village competing in real-time battles, mine for resources, and build or customise unique guns.Fights can be team-based, made up of 200 people, or if no players are nearby then a user is able to engage in combat with bot players which are scattered across the map for continuous gameplay opportunities.“After months of development, our pioneering new game is literally a Reality,” said Reality Gaming Group’s Co-Founder Tony Pearce. “We’ve had thousands of Beta testers providing us with feedback and we’re delighted that we have a game in Reality Clash that is as fun and engaging as it is technically advanced.

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Applications

ComingSoon Expands Entertainment News Coverage

PR Newswire | October 05, 2023

Evolve Media LLC, a passion-based publisher of some of the most influential internet brands since 1996, announced that its marquee entertainment site ComingSoon is continuing to grow and expand its coverage areas. ComingSoon will expand to new coverage areas, including Bollywood With traffic up 79 percent since April 2023, ComingSoon is expanding in order to continue its rapid growth since a redesign was launched in December 2022. The site is now broadening its entertainment coverage into new areas, including Indian films and television, Korean dramas, reality television, documentaries, and true crime. All of these new verticals will be easily accessible in the site's revamped navigation bar as coverage is rolled out. ComingSoon will also further commit resources to delivering top-notch anime, documentary and horror coverage, which have become key elements of the entertainment site. It will also continue to produce top-quality features and reviews that are just as engaging as they are informative, while also conducting interviews with some of Hollywood's biggest directors and stars. "Our goal is to make ComingSoon a one-stop destination for media consumers all over the world," said Todd Jacobs, Director of Content & Operations at Evolve Media. "With these strategic investments, ComingSoon will exponentially expand their global audience." "Thanks to streaming, we've seen entertainment around the globe become pop culture phenomenons," said Tyler Treese, Frontpage Editorial Manager of Evolve Media's Entertainment and Gaming Division. "International hits like Squid Game and Jawan have shown that Korea and India are producing incredible content, while anime continues to grow in popularity. We'll finally be able to cover these areas with the news coverage they deserve, and help fans figure out the next show to binge or what film to invite their friends over to watch." About Evolve Media, LLC Evolve Media is a premium publisher of leading enthusiast destinations for influential men and women. Leveraging proprietary advertising and publishing technologies, as well as hundreds of talented content professionals, Evolve Media offers premium and engaging content to its readers, while offering marketers the tools needed to execute custom, content-led marketing solutions that reach its audience of over 78 million people globally each month.

Read More

Hipster Bait Launches to Bring Game Dynamics and Augmented Reality to Music Discovery

Hipster Bait Ltd. | June 26, 2020

Today, Hipster Bait a music discovery platform for people ready to rock, launched with a first of its kind mobile app for music discovery. Available on iOS and Android, the Hipster Bait mobile app sends players out into the real world to hunt down and capture unreleased, exclusive music using augmented reality and location-based technology. "Great music tracks are getting laid down every day but it's harder than ever to get that music out to people and make a living while doing it," explains Michael Tension, Co-Founder of Hipster Bait. "As artists, we can't rely solely on the algorithms of over-crowded streaming services. We need to find new ways for fans to experience music." Each week, Hipster Bait releases exclusive unreleased songs from emerging artists hidden across a network of physical locations. After a player finds the song and the artist is revealed, they can easily revisit the song in their cassette box and springboard to artist platforms.

Read More

Mobile AR Combat Game Reality Clash Begins Phased Global Rollout

vrfocus | January 17, 2019

Niantic’s Pokemon GO might be seen as the poster child for augmented reality (AR) videogames on mobile, but there are plenty of other looking to usurp the title from its podium. Today, Reality Gaming Group has announced the long-awaited arrival of its more ambitious combat experience, Reality Clash, for iOS and Android devices.Using Apple and Google’s latest ARKit and ARCore technologies, Reality Clash is set in an underground world of cryptocurrencies and hackers, where players can navigate a 3D map to defend key parts of their own real-world town, city or village competing in real-time battles, mine for resources, and build or customise unique guns.Fights can be team-based, made up of 200 people, or if no players are nearby then a user is able to engage in combat with bot players which are scattered across the map for continuous gameplay opportunities.“After months of development, our pioneering new game is literally a Reality,” said Reality Gaming Group’s Co-Founder Tony Pearce. “We’ve had thousands of Beta testers providing us with feedback and we’re delighted that we have a game in Reality Clash that is as fun and engaging as it is technically advanced.

Read More

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