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The first HMD, The Sword of Damocles, was created
The Sword of Damocles was created in 1968 by computer scientist Ivan Sutherland with the help of his students Bob Sproull, Quintin Foster, and Danny Cohen. -
Myron Krueger established an artificial reality lab called the Videoplace
In the mid-1970s, Myron Krueger established an artificial reality laboratory called the Videoplace. His idea with the Videoplace was the creation of an artificial reality that surrounded the users, and responded to their movements and actions, without being encumbered by the use of goggles or gloves. The work done in the lab would form the basis of his much cited 1983 book Artificial Reality. -
Former Boeing researcher Thomas P Caudell coined the term “augmented reality”
Boeing Computer Services Research employee Thomas Caudell coined the term augmented reality in 1990 to describe how the head-mounted displays that electricians use when assembling complicated wiring harnesses worked. -
The US Air Force’s Research Lab developed a fully immersive AR system
In 1992 American inventor Louis RosenbergOffsite Link developed Virtual FixturesOffsite Link at at the USAFOffsite Link Armstrong LabsOffsite Link at Brooks Air Force BaseOffsite Link, San Antonio, Texas. This was the first fully immersive Augmented RealityOffsite Link system. -
Julie Martin presents the first AR theater production, ‘Dancing in Cyberspace’
Julie Martin creates first 'Augmented Reality Theater production', Dancing In Cyberspace, funded by the Australia Council for the Arts, features dancers and acrobats manipulating body–sized virtual object in real time, projected into the same physical space and performance plane. The acrobats appeared immersed within the virtual object and environments. The installation used Silicon Graphics computers and Polhemus sensing system. -
NASA’s X-38 spacecraft used AR in practical field navigation
The X-38 Crew Return Vehicle (CRV) research project is designed to develop the technology for a prototype emergency crew return vehicle, or lifeboat, for the International Space Station. The project is also intended to develop a crew return vehicle design that could be modified for other uses, such as a joint U.S. and international human spacecraft that could be launched on the French Ariane-5 Booster. -
Outdoor mobile AR game ARQuake was created
The first outdoor ARG with easily portable devices, ARQuake, was developed in 2000 by Bruce Thomas from Wearable Computer Lab -
Nokia introduced AR-based two-player game AR Tennis
Modern mobile phones combine a display and processing power with a camera, and so are ideal platforms for augmented reality (AR), the overlay of computer graphics on the real world. Henrysson has ported the popular ARToolKit computer vision library to the Symbian operating system which allows developers to build AR applications that run on a mobile phone. -
BMW ran AR-based print advertisements
LONDON - BMW and Dare have come up with one of the first blueprints of how to create a successful augmented reality campaign. Revolution goes behind the scenes to follow the initiative from start to finish. -
ARToolkit (a web-based design tool) was made available in Adobe Flash
ARToolKit is an open-source computer tracking library for creation of strong augmented reality applications that overlay virtual imagery on the real world. Currently, it is maintained as an open-source project hosted on GitHub. -
Microsoft introduced the Kinect motion sensing input devices
Kinect is a line of motion sensing input devices produced by Microsoft and first released in 2010. The devices generally contain RGB cameras, and infrared projectors and detectors that map depth through either structured light or time of flight calculations, which can in turn be used to perform real-time gesture recognition and body skeletal detection, among other capabilities. They also contain microphones that can be used for speech recognition and voice control. -
Automotive company VW launched MARTA, an AR service support system
Volkswagen has collaborated with Metaio to develop an augmented reality iPad app for the 2014 XL1 hybrid diesel that debuted earlier this year. Called MARTA (Mobile Augmented Reality Technical Assistance), the app uses the iPad's camera to view the internals of the vehicle and label the various parts and elements so that VW service workers will know what they're working on. -
Google started selling a prototype of Google Glass
Google started selling a prototype of Google Glass to qualified "Glass Explorers" in the US on April 15, 2013, for a limited period for $1,500, before it became available to the public on May 15, 2014. It had an integral 5 megapixel still/720p video camera. -
Google launched Tango, an AR computing platform
Project Tango was an augmented reality computing platform developed by Google. It used computer vision to enable mobile devices to detect their position relative to the world around them without using GPS or other external signals. -
Microsoft announced its HoloLens headset, which went on sale the following year
Microsoft HoloLens is an augmented reality (AR)/mixed reality (MR) headset developed and manufactured by Microsoft. HoloLens runs the Windows Mixed Reality platform under the Windows 10 operating system. -
Niantic and Nintendo launched Pokémon Go
Pokémon Go (stylized as Pokémon GO) is a 2016 augmented reality (AR) mobile game, part of the Pokémon franchise, developed and published by Niantic in collaboration with Nintendo and The Pokémon Company for iOS and Android devices. It uses mobile devices with GPS to locate, capture, train, and battle virtual creatures, called Pokémon, which appear as if they are in the player's real-world location. -
Snap unveiled its smartglasses, known as Spectacles
The new product was unveiled on September 24, 2016, and released on November 10, 2016. The glasses were sold through Snapbot, a proprietary vending machine for the smartglasses, which was located near Snap's headquarters in Venice, Los Angeles. -
Apple introduced the ARKit SDK for iOS devices
ARKit is Apple's augmented reality (AR) platform for iOS devices. It enables developers to produce apps that interact with the world around you using the device's cameras and sensors. Apple has been extremely keen on the potential of AR for years now and introduced ARKit in 2017 as part of iOS 11. -
Facebook launched the Camera Effects platform, later renamed Spark AR
Facebook introduced its Camera Effects Platform at its F8 conference in April 2017 as a way to bring augmented reality to the cameras in people's phones, rather than to separate devices, such as glasses. On Friday, the social network announced that it is renaming the platform Spark AR and expanding it on Instagram. -
Magic Leap’s Magic Leap One became available to buy
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Microsoft introduced the Hololens 2 headset
Microsoft HoloLens 2 is a mixed reality (MR) headset developed and manufactured by Microsoft. It is the successor to the original Microsoft HoloLens. The first variant of the device, The HoloLens 2 enterprise edition, debuted on February 24, 2019. -
Google introduced the ARCore SDK for Android devices
In February 2021, ARCore debuted for developers and introduced AR Foundation, which opened the platform up across Android devices. The SDK platform uses motion tracking, light estimation, and understanding of physical environments to bring AR into more homes with easy-to-use immersive experiences. -
Apple will launch its own AR headsets, followed by smart glasses
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AR cloud based experiences will gain prominence, supported by 5G networks
