Unreal Reality
IT enterprises at home and abroad are accelerating the launch of a new offensive to dominate the augmented reality (AR) market.
According to industry sources on June 8, major IT companies are buying firms that are working on AR or showcasing new products.
The size of the AR market is expected to increase from US$500 million in 2016 to US$120 billion in 2020, according to the Institute for Information & Communications Technology Promotion (IITP). Virtual reality (VR) shows objects and places that do not exist in reality, but AR adds virtual objects to the reality around you. Therefore, the IITP said that AR has the potential to be used in everyday life or numerous industry areas. AR technology can be used in fields like remote medical diagnosis, broadcasting, architectural design, and manufacturing process control.
The reason for foreign companies to focus on the AR market lies in its steep growth curve. Apple acquired AR solution developer Metaio in May. Virtual reality headset maker Oculus VR, which is a Facebook subsidiary, also recently revealed its interest in AR through the purchase of Surreal Vision.
Local companies are introducing various types of services using AR as well. SKT demonstrated an AR platform named T-AR for Project Tango during Google I/O in San Francisco on May 29, planning to lead the local AR market in partnership with Google.
Venture firms also stand out from the crowd in the AR area. Circus Company, a local AR solution developer, is providing 6 kinds of educational content using AR technology to digital textbooks for elementary and middle schools, along with the Korea Education and Research Information Service.
Social Network, another local venture firm, also signed a license agreement with Alpha Animation and Viva, China's largest and second-largest character companies, and is scheduled to showcase a 3D AR app called Sketchpop in China.