Augmented Reality Trends of 2023: New Milestones in Immersive Technology

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Innovative technologies transform science fiction into reality, and AR is undoubtedly one of them. Holograms, like in the Star Wars and the Marvel movies, now surround us in the real world, bringing a new immersive experience, and it’s more than just entertainment. Today, augmented reality is an effective business tool.

Trend #1: Leap into the Metaverse

It’s likely no surprise to you that augmented reality is being used alongside other metaverse technologies. The metaverse has barraged news media over this past year since Facebook’s ‘Meta’ rebranding. However, it’s not just marketing hogwash. One of the goals of using metaverse for business development is to strike down the barriers between the digital and physical worlds. Since augmented reality can display virtual objects embedded in our real world, various opportunities emerge for businesses and consumers alike.

Avatars

If we’re going to bring digital experiences into the real world, AR is a great start. Using body and face tracking, as well as advanced scene depth sensing, companies are already working on camera filters that accomplish this. Geenee AR and Ready Player Me partnered up to make this experience a reality. By inserting your avatar into Geenee’s WebAR Builder software, you can effectively ‘wear’ your avatar on camera. The software also takes into account cosmetic items on your Ready Player Me character, including accessories in the form of NFTs.

This technology isn’t new. It’s been seen in use with apps like Snapchat and Instagram for a long time. However, the innovative element is how the app allows users to drop their avatar that they use on other platforms into the app and use it in AR. In the future, this technology could be used to better hybridize virtual meetings. If one person on your team is using a VR headset to attend a meeting and you’re attending without a VR headset, an AR avatar of the person could represent them at your meeting.

Spatial Audio

Although it may not seem like an augmented reality technology on the surface, spatial audio is very important for enhancing the immersion of AR experiences. Metaverse technologists are obsessed with including all of our five senses in the process, and our hearing is no exception. To make VR and AR experiences more immersive, 3D audio is needed. Users should be able to tell where a sound is coming from in 3D space based on their own position.

Meta recently added an advanced engine to its AR Spark Studio to create sound effects by mixing multiple sounds. This allows creators to create multi-sensory effects that allow people to use both sight and sound to feel more immersed in the augmented reality experience. In this way, we can make sounds play in response to human interaction with our AR effect.

Taking Digital Items into the Real World

Metaverse fans love taking things from the digital world into the real world and vice versa with AR. This technology has actually been around since before the metaverse craze. For example, Meta is working on displaying digital collectibles in AR. All creators will need to do is import their NFTs as 2D virtual objects into Instagram Stories and combine them with “See in AR” functionality. This will open up new opportunities for collectors and creators to access and share their NFTs beyond their wallets and it will certainly quickly become one of the key augmented reality market trends in 2023.

There has also been some buzz about virtual art, or art from the real world being offered as AR experiences. For example, Sotheby’s, the fourth oldest auction house in the world, has begun offering AR experiences to bidders through an Instagram filter that allows them to see art up for auction up close and personal. Sotheby’s used this technology to sell a painting for $121.2 million.