Tootfinder

After years of failing to produce a profitable augmented reality platform,
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is pounding one of the final nails into the coffin of its metaverse efforts
— the ones that were once so central to its vision that it renamed the entire company after them.
This week, the Wall Street Journalreported Meta was laying off some 1,500 employees from its Reality Labs division,
-- the department working on Meta’s virtual reality products.
As part of the …

Meta Lays Off Thousands of VR Workers as Zuckerberg’s Vision Fails
The company has laid off some 1,500 virtual reality developers as part of a broader shift toward AI wearable devices.

💍 Origami-inspired ring lets users 'feel' virtual worlds
#vr

Origami-inspired ring lets users 'feel' virtual worlds
Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are technologies that allow users to immerse themselves in digital worlds or enhance their surroundings with computer-generated filters or images, respectively. Both these technologies are now widely used worldwide, whether to experience video games and media content in more engaging ways or improve specific training and assist professionals in their daily tasks.

The smart glasses race will be won by AI, not augmented reality https://www.verdict.co.uk/smart-glasses-race-won-by-ai-not-augmented-reality/ "Smart glasses will go mainstream by making everyday life easier with

The smart glasses race will be won by AI, not augmented reality
Smart glasses will go mainstream by making everyday life easier with AI and discreet designs, not through flashy AR features.

(YouTube) How experience and augmented reality shape vision https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_wyHCe48Os&t=205s At 31:34 "we have been using augmented reality especially to try to augment the environment for to help people with low vision."

Snap launches a wholly-owned subsidiary called Specs Inc. for its upcoming AR glasses, in a bid to facilitate minority investment and offer distinct branding (Jess Weatherbed/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/news/869210/snap-specs-smart-ar-glasses-new-subsi…

Snap is turning its smart glasses team into its own company
Snap is launching a separate business for its upcoming Specs augmented reality glasses in a bid to lure new investors to the project.

Tricks for using Google Gemini Live AI scene description in combination with The vOICe visual-to-auditory sensory substitution for the blind #blind

Beim WDR gibts die Klima App. Unterhalte dich (virtuell) persönlich mit den Opfern aus dem Ahrtal. Erlebe mit Augmented Reality den brennenden Schwarzwald (der hieß schon vorher so). Der Klimawandel interaktiv, inklusiv, barrierefrei in TechniColor.
@… @…

Beim WDR gibts die Klima App. Unterhalte dich (virtuell) persönlich mit den Opfern aus dem Ahrtal. Erlebe mit Augmented Reality den brennenden Schwarzwald (der hieß schon vorher so). Der Klimawandel interaktiv, inklusiv, barrierefrei in TechniColor.
@… @…

PAColorHolo: A Perceptually-Aware Color Management Framework for Holographic Displays
Chun Chen, Minseok Chae, Seung-Woo Nam, Myeong-Ho Choi, Minseong Kim, Eunbi Lee, Yoonchan Jeong, Jae-Hyeung Park
https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.14766 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2601.14766 https://arxiv.org/html/2601.14766
arXiv:2601.14766v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Holographic displays offer significant potential for augmented and virtual reality applications by reconstructing wavefronts that enable continuous depth cues and natural parallax without vergence-accommodation conflict. However, despite advances in pixel-level image quality, current systems struggle to achieve perceptually accurate color reproduction--an essential component of visual realism. These challenges arise from complex system-level distortions caused by coherent laser illumination, spatial light modulator imperfections, chromatic aberrations, and camera-induced color biases. In this work, we propose a perceptually-aware color management framework for holographic displays that jointly addresses input-output color inconsistencies through color space transformation, adaptive illumination control, and neural network-based perceptual modeling of the camera's color response. We validate the effectiveness of our approach through numerical simulations, optical experiments, and a controlled user study. The results demonstrate substantial improvements in perceptual color fidelity, laying the groundwork for perceptually driven holographic rendering in future systems.
toXiv_bot_toot

The vOICe for Android v2.78 released #BCI

The vOICe for Android - Apps on Google Play
Augmented Reality for the Blind: See with your Ears!