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Snapchat will lead the Augmented Reality revolution
The wildly popular “social media / camera” company already has most of the necessary pieces
to bring augmented reality to the masses with the help of the younger generations that are
constantly using their applications.
Key Points
● Userbase
● Snapchat’s AR History
○ Overlays
○ Geofilters
○ Lenses
○ 3D Stickers
● Acquisitions
○ Vergence Labs
○ Looksery
○ Seene
● Public Spotting
● Engineering and Research Talent
● Patent
● Forecasts
● Conclusion
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Userbase
Current estimates put Snapchat’s userbase around
150 million daily active users; up from 110m in
December 2015. This makes them more popularthan Twitter, in regards to daily usage. [1,2]
Compared to Facebook, Snapchat has more video
views per day (~10 billion) despite a drastically
smaller userbase. [3,4,5,6]
Their main audience is between 13 and 24, who are
the primary people that will most likely be early
adopters of AR when the technology finally comes to
fruition.[7]
https://www.snapchat.com/adshttp://fortune.com/2016/01/12/snapchat-facebook-video-views/http://finance.yahoo.com/news/snapchat-video-viewers-grew-significantly-150840321.htmlhttp://fortune.com/2015/11/04/facebook-video-growth/http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-28/snapchat-user-content-fuels-jump-to-10-billion-daily-video-viewshttp://www.foliomag.com/2016/report-reveals-snapchat-still-growing-users/http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-02/snapchat-passes-twitter-in-daily-usage
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Snapchat’s AR History
Pretty much from the beginning, Snapchat has been adding augmented reality features. Among
the earliest capabilities was overlays that involved drawing over pictures to decorate them.
In addition to drawing over photos, users can also add Geofilters that show information linked to
a person’s physical location. This included items like temperature, speed, illustrations...etc
One of the more popular additions to the Snapchat apps is the new Lenses feature. This allows
people to track people’s faces by manually selecting them through the camera with thetouchscreen. Sponsored lenses are added to the app everyday, thus increasing their revenue.
https://medium.com/@markracette/snapchat-s-future-lies-in-augmented-reality-afbfe1834e7ahttps://medium.com/@markracette/snapchat-s-future-lies-in-augmented-reality-afbfe1834e7a
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Further experimentation in the same line as Lenses is the recent update of 3D Stickers. This
gives users the option to track any object in a video, rather than just faces.
Acquisitions
Over the last few years, Snapchat has secretly acquired a couple of companies to integrate
features into their app. The information has mostly only surfaced through leaked emails and
hacks, meaning that Snapchat is trying to keep quiet about their AR plans.
Vergence Labs
This company started in 2011. According to their crunchbase page, their goal was to “ reinventthe future of the human-computer paradigm with stylish wearable computing, computer vision,
computer graphics, biometrics, learning algorithms, and the web to enhance humanity and
redefine reality.”[8] They raised over $70K through Indiegogo,[9] and then were acquired by
Snapchat late 2014 for $15 million. [10]
http://venturebeat.com/2014/12/16/snapchat-paid-15m-for-vergence-labs-a-google-glass-like-startup/https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/social-video-glasses#/https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/vergence-labs#/entity
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The primary product that Snapchat was most likely interested in was Vergence Labs’ Epiphany
Eyewear. These were stylish glasses that lay the foundation for an AR product produced by
Snapchat. In order for AR to take off into the mainstream, the glasses have to be fashionable
and sexy. Currently, the AR market is flooded with clunky devices. Epiphany Eyewear, on the
other hand, actually looks like something that the public would wear on a regular basis.
The main problem with the Epiphany Eyewear glasses though is that when they were originally
released, there was no AR functionalities in it. Instead, they focused on video/photo capture with
the ability to transmit data wirelessly via Wi-Fi. [11] It was by no means a standalone AR device.
In order to understand where Snapchat could be going though, diving into Vergence Lab’s early
experimentations is a must. A video posted on Feb 13, 2012, by Erick Miller, Vergence Lab’s
CEO, shows the vision of augmented reality glasses with a working prototype.[12] The
technology was developed by Jon Rodriguez during his studies at Stanford University.
What was shown essentially looks like a Virtual Reality headset. It was the culmination of
research and development of a hyper-realistic 3D display invented by Jon Rodriguez during his
Computer Science Honors Thesis. A summary of his work is documented in PDF form.[13]
Interestingly, Rodriguez was experimenting with eye-tracking in addition to solving major
technical problems at the time. That eye-tracking ability could provide useful information in an
AR headset.
The resulting wireless AR device was built off of Android and utilized a pass-through camera to
send video signals to two displays inside the wearable. It included facial recognition through
computer vision technology. Then the software could detect who the person in front was by
integrating with Facebook APIs. Furthermore, Erick Miller also talks about potentially integrating
biometric sensors over time.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/13352595/volumetric-world-display.pdfhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OECh3-R_MA8https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphany_Eyewear
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Diving back even further, a video by Jon Rodriguez uploaded to Youtube in 2011 depicts a
smaller pair of AR glasses.[14] It was a wired prototype that sent video feeds from the camera to
a laptop and then back to the headset. The software could then detect edges of objects,
producing psychedelic outlines. Another video shows more experimentation of a 3rd
prototype.[15]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEJoSSs5UBohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTmhwGrIB5Q
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Another example of the types of AR glasses that Snapchat could produce comes from Vergence
Labs’ Product Designer - David Meisenholder. He designed the GL-20 Polaroid video glasses
that was marketed with Lady Gaga in 2011.[20]
Looksery
According to their website, this company was founded in 2013 and “is a San Francisco Bay
Area company that specializes in facial tracking and modification technologies for real-time
video communication.”[21]
Through a Kickstarter, Looksery raised $46,152 to bring the product to life.[ 22] Late 2015,
Snapchat acquired the firm for a reported $150 million.[23] This technology was then integrated
into Snapchat’s app and labeled as “Lenses.”
In a sense, these features are allowing people to augment themselves as how they want. On a
philosophical level, this is tapping into the idea that through AR people can define themselves
with these kind of filters. If they want to be an animal, they can share with their friends what that
would look like. Or perhaps they want to show a new hairdo, or a superpower, or a new type of
eyes. All this is possible with this type of software.
http://www.businessinsider.com/snapchat-buys-looksery-2015-9https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/looksery/looksery/descriptionhttp://looksery.com/pr/http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/06/lady-gaga-and-polaroid-launch-grey-label-instant-camera-printer/
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It is essentially giving people the options to look inwards and to define what they want to
become.
Seene
As mentioned on their website, Seene “has developed a portfolio of advanced computer vision
technologies designed from the ground up for use on mobile devices in real-time applications.
[They] enable these devices to locate themselves in space, map visual environments, and
recreate in 3D what is seen through the camera, turning a standard smartphone into a 3D
scanner without the use of additional hardware or off-device processing.”[24]
Sometime in 2016, Seene was acquired by Snapchat for an undisclosed amount.[ 25]
A video uploaded to Youtube in 2015 shows some of the capabilities of their platform. For
instance, using just an RGB camera in a phone or tablet, the software can create stunning
visual animations. [26] Swirls of colors and sparkles can float around objects. Lego characters
can talk to the user, and this just shows a glimpse into what is possible. With technology like
this, the creative potential is endless.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=24&v=f01O3FEpfIohttp://techcrunch.com/2016/06/03/snapchat-secretly-acquires-seene-a-computer-vision-startup-that-lets-mobile-users-make-3d-selfies/https://seene.co/
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Public Spotting
On June 17, 2016, Business Insider revealed that Snapchat's CEO wore the company's
secret-camera sunglasses in public — and nobody noticed. They mention that “Evan Spiegel
was pictured wearing a very different pair of sunglasses from his usual ones while on vacation
in Corsica with his girlfriend, the model Miranda Kerr.”
“Compared with Spiegel's normal aviator style, the
sunglasses photographed in August [2015] appear to
have thicker frames and the attached cameras. They're
similar to but aren't exactly clones of the glasses made
by Vergence Labs, a company Snapchat acquired in
2014.”
One can speculate that those glasses seen in the
paparazzi pictures have at least the ability to changethe level of tint on the lenses. The cameras on the
frames depict a version that can snap photos.
It is unclear if the glasses are a standalone headset or if they connect to a cell phone wirelessly.
Based on the engineering history of Vergence Labs, the latter is most likely. It is also not know if
the glasses have any augmented reality features involved. But, looking into the past, even to the
time of Voxel Vision, the engineering talent at Snapchat looks like they are capable of adding
thin screens to the inside of glasses.
In the past, Jon Rodriguez implemented a similar feature before (although the camera was thebiggest part of a previous iteration). As long as they have been able to reduce the components,
it is plausible that the glasses seen on Evan’ Spiegel’s face include some kind of overlay AR
features.
http://www.businessinsider.com/evan-spiegel-photographed-wearing-alleged-snapchat-glass-prototype-with-miranda-kerr-2016-6http://www.businessinsider.com/evan-spiegel-photographed-wearing-alleged-snapchat-glass-prototype-with-miranda-kerr-2016-6
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Engineering and Research Talent
Over the last couple years, Snapchat has been snatching up a ton of talent. Several people
have worked for other high-profile companies, making the move to the more forward thinking
company of Snapchat. A key division within the company is their “Snap Lab.”
One of the people who made the transition to Snapchat is Gareth Griffiths, Ph.D. He used to
work at Oculus as their User Research Lead and is now the Head of User Research at
Snapchat. [27]
Microsoft’s Hololens Recruiter, Mark Dixon, now works for Snapchat too.[28]
His profile mentions that he loves “building teams that are passionate, driven
and obsessed with bringing new and exciting products to market. Being able to
help build a team creating a new product not yet seen by the public's eye is
what [he’s] about, and what excites me about being in tech recruiting.”
VP Engineering for Qualcomm on the Vuforia team left to join Snapchat in
January 2016. His name is Eitan Pilipski and is Snapchat’s new Engineering
Director. [29] His specialities include: computer vision, augmented reality,
virtual reality, facial recognition, gestures, wearable, HMD, profiling, analytics,
and cloud recognition.
From Vergence Labs, Jon Rodriguez has become Snapchat’s System
Architect.[30] Because of his previous AR work, it can be concluded that he is
working close with the R&D teams within the company. If any of his
experiments from Vergence Labs and Stanford are being used, the AugmentedReality community is in for a treat.
Another person now at Snapchat is Lauryn Morris - who is one of their
designers. She has designed eyewear solutions for people/companies;
including: Marchon Eyewear, Michael Kors, Innovega, and Zac Posen. [31]
Lauryn Morris has also designed conceptual and manufactured housewares,
small appliances, furniture, eyewear, jewelry and consumer electronics. Her
website lists some of the glasses she has designed.[32] Among those is a pair
of AR glasses called Innovega iOptik that works with custom contact lenses.[33]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5qMCl4SgVwhttp://www.lauryndesign.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurynmorrishttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jonr1https://www.linkedin.com/in/eitanpilipskihttps://www.linkedin.com/in/markdixonshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/gareth-griffiths-ph-d-434102b
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Ning Zhang is yet another Research Scientist at Snapchat. She has a Ph.D. in
Computer Science from UC Berkeley, and a B.S in Computer Science from
Tsinghua University, China.[41] Her role a Snapchat involves conducting
computer vision and deep learning research. Ning Zhang used to be a
Research Intern at Facebook and has interests in Artificial Intelligence too.
Linjie Luo is a Research Scientist who used to work at Disney and Microsoft.
He specializes in 3D reconstruction - 3D printing - Geometry processing. He
obtained my PhD in the Department of Computer Science, Princeton
University, advised by Prof. Szymon Rusinkiewicz.[42] He also provided
high-quality physically-based smoke simulation for SIGGRAPH projects while
at Microsoft.
Another of the key players in the software engineering at Snapchat looks to be
Yunchao Gong who specializes in machine learning, computer vision, anddeep learning; and he has been working on related fields for more than 10
years.[43] He also used to work at Facebook, Google, and Microsoft over his
career. Gong does large-scale video encoding pipeline at Snapchat now which
could be useful in the AR architecture that is being built.
Rong Yan is the Engineering Director at Snapchat who started working for the company late
2014. His group makes the camera application better and smarter with the state-of-the-art
mobile / CV / AI technology. [44] Other people on the software side include Xiaoyu Wang,
Jianchao Yang, and Jiayuan Ma (among others).
Snapchat obviously has a ton of software talent, and it will be interesting to see who else they
will bring in on the hardware side. Granted the technology currently being used in the AR market
is essentially made up of cell phone parts, but adding more computer vision cameras...etc will
require better battery usage and faster processors. Battery technology will be critical in building
a long lasting AR device, which will probably be developed elsewhere. They might need a good
radio engineer to broadcast signals to external devices if they want to add controllers too.
It is also unclear how Snapchat would display information to the users. Whether that will be
related to using screens with a passthrough camera, like a sleeker VR headset, using reflection
technology, or if they will beam light directly into the users’ eyes. Either way, Snapchat will have
to build that team out more. The optics will be by far one of the most important (if not the most
important) part of the potential device they are working on.
They have the researchers and designers already in place, now they need to get the hardware
engineers on board if they are going to develop a pair of AR glasses. Because of this, they are
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rong-yan-2004692https://www.linkedin.com/in/yunchao-gong-150a32ahttps://www.linkedin.com/in/linjie-luo-981b8147https://www.linkedin.com/in/ning-zhang-16580125
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currently searching for a Computer Vision Engineer and a 3D Computer Vision Engineer.
[45,46]
Patents
Snapchat has applied for several patents. Although none of the directly relate to augmentedreality, a couple of them could become useful if they eventually release an AR headset. Most of
them center around accessing content based on geographical locations.
Imagine a person wearing an AR headset. If they walk through a school, park, house, or another
place where their friends and family frequently visits, they could essentially receive photo/video
messages placed in specific areas. Those images would appear, play, and then disappear in
typical Snapchat fashion.
The following patents could allow this to happen:
❖ Priority based placement of messages in a geo-location based event gallery [47] ➢ “ A computer implemented method includes creating an event gallery associated with an event using messages
received from devices located within a geo-location fence. The messages are scanned to identify a specific
brand in a message. An endorsement of the message is received from an owner of the specific brand. In
response to the endorsement, the placement of the message is prioritized in the event gallery. The event gallery
is supplied in response to a request from a user. ”
❖ User interface for accessing media at a geographic location [48] ➢ “A system and method for accessing a media item on a mobile device are described. The mobile device
includes a media placement application and a media display application. The media placement application
receives a selection of a media item generated by the mobile device. The media placement application
generates access conditions for the media item based on geolocation and position information of the mobile
device associated with the selected media item. The media display application monitors the geolocation and
position of the mobile device and determines whether the geolocation and position of the mobile device meet
the access conditions of the selected media item. The media display application generates a notification that the
selected media item is available to view in a display of the mobile device in response to determining that the
geolocation and position of the mobile device meet the access conditions of the selected media item.”
❖ Device and method for photo and video capture [49] ➢ “A single user input element in an image capture device is used for both photo and video capture. Based on a
first user interface activity, a timing reference is engaged at a first reference time. In a first case, photo capture
is performed. In the first case, a second reference time is based on a second user interface activity, and the
timing reference indicates a passage of time between the two reference times is shorter than a particular time
interval. In a second case, video capture is performed. In the second case, the timing reference indicates a
passage of time since the first reference time is equal to or longer than the particular time interval. Video
capture is stopped based on a subsequent user interface activity. The user interface activities may comprise
detecting actions based on the same type of physical manipulation of the single user input.”
❖ Geo-Location Based Event Gallery [50] ➢ “A computer implemented method may include receiving geo-location data from a device of a user; comparing
the geo-location data with a geo-location fence associated with an event; determining that the geo-location data
corresponds to the geo-location fence associated with the event; responsive to the determining that the
geo-location data corresponds to the geo-location fence associated with the event, supplying user-selectable
http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=20150365795.PGNR.http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect2=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&RefSrch=yes&Query=PN/9277126http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect2=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&RefSrch=yes&Query=PN/9015285http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect2=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&RefSrch=yes&Query=PN/9094137https://boards.greenhouse.io/snapchat/jobs/118167#.V1Noy1YrKUkhttps://boards.greenhouse.io/snapchat/jobs/193727#.V1NoslYrKUk
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event gallery information, associated with an event gallery of the event, to the device for addition to a
destination list on the device; detecting selection of the user-selectable event gallery information in the
destination list by the user of the device; and/or responsive to the detecting of the selection of the
user-selectable event gallery information by the user of the device, adding the user as a follower of the event,
with access to the event gallery.”
❖ User Interface to Augment an Image [51] ➢ “A system and method for a media filter publication application are described. The media filter publication
application receives a content item and a selected geolocation, generates a media filter based on the content
item and the selected geolocation, and supplies the media filter to a client device located at the selected
geolocation.”
❖ Geolocation-Based Pictographs [52] ➢ “A system and method for geolocation-based pictographs are provided. In example embodiments, a current
geolocation of a user device is determined. A pictograph is identified based on the current geolocation of the
user device. The identified pictograph is presented on a user interface of the user device.”
Looksery also has a few patents that could be useful in an Augmented Reality scenario. It is
assumed that when Snapchat acquired the company, the $150 million spent includes theacquisition of those patents as well.
❖ Emotion Recognition in Video Conferencing [53] ➢ “Methods and systems for videoconferencing include recognition of emotions related to one videoconference
participant such as a customer. This ultimately enables another videoconference participant, such as a service
provider or supervisor, to handle angry, annoyed, or distressed customers. One example method includes the
steps of receiving a video that includes a sequence of images, detecting at least one object of interest (e.g., a
face), locating feature reference points of the at least one object of interest, aligning a virtual face mesh to the at
least one object of interest based on the feature reference points, finding over the sequence of images at least
one deformation of the virtual face mesh that reflect face mimics, determining that the at least one deformation
refers to a facial emotion selected from a plurality of reference facial emotions, and generating a communication
bearing data associated with the facial emotion.”
❖ Background Modification in Video Conferencing [54] ➢ “Methods and systems for real-time video processing can be used in video conferencing to modify image quality
of background. One example method includes the steps of receiving a video including a sequence of images,
identifying at least one object of interest (e.g., a face) in one or more of the images, detecting feature reference
points of the at least one object of interest, and tracking the at least one object of interest in the video. The
tracking may comprise aligning a virtual face mesh to the at least one object of interest in one or more of the
images. Further, a background is identified in the images by separating the at least one object of interest from
each image based on the virtual face mesh. The background is then modified in each of the images by blurring,
changing a resolution, colors, or other parameters.”
http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=20150195491.PGNR.http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=20150286858.PGNR.http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=20160085773.PGNR.http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=20160085863.PGNR.
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Forecasts
Looking towards the future, Snapchat will continue to integrate innovative features into their
smartphone applications. That’s what they have been doing since their inception, and it makes
sense to keep the trend going. For instance, now that they have acquired Seene, 3D capture
and sharing is likely to be added soon. How long that will take is still yet to be determined.
In regards to Virtual Reality, it seem unlikely that they will
develop VR capabilities. However, Seene does already
allow for Google Cardboard support, so that could happen.
360 photos and videos is another area that could be
experimented with, but there are problems related to
making that happen. For one, there is no really good way to
capture panoramas with just a phone yet. Connecting to
devices like a Ricoh Theta or Samsung Gear 360 Camwould mean partnerships with those companies, and
Snapchat tends to create stuff in-house or through
acquisitions.
With that in mind, it would be easy to add 360 video playback in the app allowing for users to
scroll through with their fingers (or potentially in a headset). Still, the problem lies in recording
those 360-degree images and videos. Creating their own 360 camera would be a waste of time;
but it is fun to imagine overlaying objects in a 360-degree video by feeding them through
Snapchat’s software.
The reason it wouldn’t make sense for Snapchat to focus on VR is because that industry is still
in the ‘here and now’ phase. Snapchat is more forward thinking than that. Some VR features
could be integrated over time, sure. But if Snapchat is going to continue to alter the way society
interacts with each other, focusing their attention on the Augmented Reality sector is a better
way forward.
Because of their acquisitions, starting with Vergence Labs, research and development within
Snapchat on an AR headset is almost guaranteed. They have the software talent and that will
keep showing up in the apps. Yet, in order for them to create the ultimate AR headset, they
need to buckle down on the hardware.
Snapchat has already begun adding more hardware
people on board. Jon Rodriguez is one of the people to
keep watching closely. He has already prototyped AR
headsets over the years, so building out the team to work
with him is going happen. Mark Dixon, Paul Sledd, and
Timothy Sehn, will probably help with that.[55]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothysehnhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/paulsledd
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It is expected that Snapchat will also keep secretly acquiring talent rather than publically
announcing anything. This is because they don’t want to confuse their users by mentioning an
AR headset so early on. Rather, it is better to keep quiet until they are ready, and then they will
release their vision accordingly.
Conclusion
Snapchat is primed to bring AR into the mainstream consciousness. They have already begun
“training” their user base to use augmented reality capabilities. Currently, those features are
stuck inside a phone. However, they have the talent to bring it all into a standalone AR headset.
That device will most likely be built on Android or Windows, unless they decide to develop their
own operating system. iOS is too far behind. It will also need to connect to cell phone towers
too.
With that in mind, there are still quite a few challenges that they need to overcome. Even if theyare able to produce a spectacularly sexy headset prototype, the manufacturing of those devices
is going to be a huge obstacle. Yet, they can learn from the virtual reality industry in that
regards.
If they focus on the hardware and get something ready for market though, they will be the
leaders in the industry. They already have the user base needed. Now they just need the
hardware.
It can be argued that Facebook’s social media platform is why the world has mobile phones is
just about everyone’s pockets. Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus is certainly why virtual reality isgoing mainstream. So, looking at those trends, then Snapchat will be the reason everyone will
have spectacular Augmented Reality glasses on their faces sharing content on a daily basis.
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