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Snap partners with Camo app creator to bring AR streaming to your phone

Snap Inc. and Reincubate — creator of the Camo app — have joined together to offer an augmented reality experience that marries Camo’s overlay, zoom, pan, and other features to Snapchat. The new feature allows users to use Snap’s Camera Kit with their streaming, video chats, gaming, professional meetings, and more.

This isn’t the first time Snapchat has dabbled with augmented reality, but unlike the 2019 paint tool, the Camera Kit is designed specifically to make augmented reality a lot more intuitive and natural during streams and other video events.

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Who can use it and for how much?

The use of Snap’s Camera Kit is completely free, so you don’t have to worry about having content restricted or behind any paywalls. Those using iOS, Windows, or MacOS can use the AR Camera Kit today, while those operating with Android will have to wait for support to be added sometime later in 2021. Options will also be implemented to help creators monetize their creations to promote a healthy and productive ecosystem of content. And a live showcase and celebration of the AR features from Camo will start at 10 a.m. PT today for the Camera Kit’s release.

What does the Camera Kit do?

Those who wish to use the kit can easily do so by finding the AR lenses in the Camo Studio. Once selected, a dozen launch lens options will pop up to use. Each of them generally falls into one of four categories:

  • Focus
  • Accessibility
  • Masking
  • Novelty

These categories give users multiple choices in highlighting the focus on the speaker in their streams, more easily convey emotions and visual cues for watchers, provide better attempts at effortless masking, and offer a wider variety of lenses to just have fun and experiment with.

Camo – Future of AR and video

More on augmented reality

While the other great AR apps of 2021 don’t work directly with ongoing streaming, they do offer a wide array of options to those looking for different AR uses and ideas. The Camera Kit might be the first of them to finally make AR apps mainstream and a must-use. While only 12 lenses will launch with the Camera Kit, creators will begin to release new content to keep fans of the Camera Kit surrounded with plenty of options to pick from.

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See how a countertop fits in your kitchen before you buy it with Cambria AR app
Cambria AR

Augmented reality (AR) has come a long way over the last few years, serving as a tool to improve GPS capabilities, aiding medical students in performing virtual surgery, and offering entertainment like Pokémon Go and SpecTrek. Now, consumers can modify the design of their home thanks to the new Cambria AR app.
The Minnesota-based maker of quartz surfaces and countertops selected digital agency space150 to develop the app using Apple’s ARKit technology, which adds digital objects to your environment. Cambria’s product allows you to modify the appearance of countertops, tables, and other surfaces in your home.
Brian Peters, CMO at Cambria, believes the app is a game changer that will revolutionize the design industry.
“As the leader in stone surfaces, Cambria is adopting and bringing the remarkable technology to our consumers in a very simple but powerful app,” Peters said. “There’s no better way to see Cambria’s stunning designs than in your very own kitchen.”
You can get creative with your designs and test them on your surfaces through the app, giving you a clearer vision of how your ideas look with your home’s lighting, cabinets and floors. Cambria released a video that shows you how to use the app by focusing on each corner of the surface you wish to modify. Cambria AR then examines the lines that connect each corner, matching the shape and depth of the surface.
The user-friendly interface then displays a new virtual surface that matches its outline, showing multiple design styles you can choose from. You can then take pictures or video through the app so you can share your kitchen island’s potential new look.
Marc Jensen, chief innovation officer at space150, believes the move will put Cambria ahead of the pack in the design industry, as the company is setting “a new bar for the consumer experience, and solved a real challenger by making it as easy as possible to try before you buy.”
Other developers have also been using AR technology for artistic purposes, including InkHunter, an app that allows you to check out what a tattoo would look like on a certain part of your body, and Amikasa, which fills your home with virtual furniture.
The app is expected to be out in the Apple store in fall 2017.

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AR Measure turns your phone into an AR-powered measuring tape
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As cool as augmented reality can be, the truth of the matter is, there just aren't yet that many practical applications for the technology. After all, how many rooms in your home do you really have to redecorate? And how many coloring books do you actually want to bring to life? But fret not, friends. If you're looking for a way to introduce some augmented reality into your life in a really useful way, meet AR Measure, a new app that lets you measure things with your phone.

But wait, you say -- I can already measure things with my phone -- I just use my physical handset as a de facto ruler! Sure, that works, if you're really looking to hack a solution. But AR Measure is a much more elegant way to go about things. The brain child of creative collective Laan Labs, this little mobile app actually allows you to have an adjustable ruler on your phone. And it all relies on augmented reality.

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Snap! 7 case brings the DSLR experience to your iPhone
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Taking photos with your iPhone can be a fun and effortless process, but for more serious shutterbugs, the limitations of a cameraphone are many. Being stuck with just one focal length -- or just two, in the case of the iPhone 7 Plus -- limits creative potential, while the physical design of a phone simply isn’t well suited for extended photo sessions. Bitplay wants to solve both of these issues with the $50 Snap! 7 case, which adds an interchangeable lens mount and improved ergonomics for iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus photographers.

Updated on March 15, 2017: Changed information about availability. The Snap! 7 case is available now through AC Gears, and B&H later this month. See below.

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