AR Poised for Explosive Growth – Weekly Mashup 132

Virtual and Augmented Reality Poised for Explosive Growth
The Journal

"Virtual and augmented reality are often touted as the next big thing in education. How big? Not nearly as big as textbooks, but heading toward the billion-dollar mark inside of 10 years. The numbers for education aren’t as staggering as for some other industries. According to investment bankers Goldman Sachs, VR and AR technologies will generate $700 annually from the education sector by 2025. That pales in comparison with videogames in the consumer market ($11.6 billion), events ($4.1 billion) and video entertainment ($3.2 billion)." Read More

Google Predicts the Future: Go Big on Artificial Intelligence
CNET

"It's a given that the most important thing to Google -- the company/verb/website that's synonymous with finding things using the Internet -- is its search business. Now, as the company lays out its master plan for the future, Google is making sure that business is injected with a healthy dose of artificial intelligence." Read More

Scoble: After Smartphones, Augmented Reality Glasses Will Grab Us Next
Net News Check

"Brush away your bad memories of Google Glass: tech blogger Robert Scoble says exciting, high-utility developments are happening with augmented reality glasses. He thinks that for many of us, those glasses are going to be as indispensible in five years as our smartphones are now." Read More

Artificial Intelligence Now Fits Inside a USB Stick
Engadget

"Movidius chips have been showing up in quite a few products recently. It's the company that helps DJI's latest drone avoid obstacles, and FLIR's new thermal camera automatically spot people trapped in a fire, all through deep learning via neural networks. It also signed a deal with Google to integrate its chips into as-yet-unannounced products. Now, the chip designer has a product it says will bring the capacity for powerful deep learning to everyone: a USB accessory called the Fathom Neural Compute Stick." Read More

Hands on With the Meta 2 Augmented Reality Headset
Tech Republic

"The Silicon Valley Virtual Reality conference is kicking off this week in San Jose, California. As is the nature of tech conferences, you're as likely to bump into a tech company giving demos in a hotel room as you are to run into a regular guest. Wednesday, I visited a suite to demo Meta 2, an augmented reality headset that's been garnering attention for accomplishing a wider field of view and more natural gesture interactions than others in the AR space." Read More

Why Is News Corp Investing In Augmented Reality?
Forbes

"Recently, News Corp Australia made its first seed investment in augmented reality company Plattar — a cloud based platform that allows publishers to create, manage and distribute augmented reality content. The Plattar platform comprises a template driven app builder and content management system for managing augmented reality experiences and can deploy content to any device. Augmented reality is touted to be the next major component in consumer engagement, especially in the real estate and gaming." Read More