Instagram is making its augmented reality effects a little more educational. The app is partnering with three museums in the United States and France to bring AR versions of their exhibits into its camera.The company has partnered with the Smithsonian,
Virtual reality doesn’t quite match up to the “reality” label without tactile sensations, but that might not be an issue for too much longer. Cornell scientists have developed a new form of stretchable skin sensor that uses fiber optics to provide a sense of touch. It’s inspired by silica-based fiber sensors that look for subtle wavelength changes to measure elements like temperature.
In a prototype glove, each finger has a stretchable lightguide that combines one transparent polyurethane core as well as an LED-linked core loaded with absorbent dyes. When you deform the lightguide through bending your fingers or encountering pressure, the
Snapchat is adding food and wine labels to its visual search lineup. The app’s in-app camera can now scan packaged food and wine labels to surface nutritional info and tasting notes.
The features are similar to what you’d find in standalone food and wine apps. Point the camera at a barcode and Snapchat will display some basic nutritional details as well as an analysis of its relative “health” benefits (provided by nutrition app Yuka). Likewise, “scan” a bottle of wine and you’ll get a pop-up from wine app Vivino with a price, rating and some tasting notes.
While the coronavirus pandemic has hit the ad industry hard, Snap seems to be navigating it just fine. Snapchat app added 11 million new users, according to its third-quarter earnings report, bringing its total daily active users up to 249 million. More impressively, the company reported $679 million in revenue, an increase of more than 50 percent from last year, and well ahead of analyst expectations.