Snapchat holding company Snap reportedly plans to include augmented reality (AR) features into the next iteration of its Snapchat Spectacles.
The technology, a feature of the wildly successful smartphone game Pokémon Go, released last year, overlays digital information on real-world images. This means people wearing Spectacles 2 will be able to see and inspect a 3D digital object in the real world.
Last year, when Snap differentiated itself from Snapchat, it launched its first piece of hardware - Snapchat Spectacles. These are sunglasses with built-in cameras which capture video from a human perspective and sync with its ephemeral messaging app, Snapchat.
The Specs were initially only available in the US through vending machines scattered around the country and retail for $130 each. Earlier this year, the vending machines were placed in certain areas of Europe.
The AR-enabled Specs were first reported by TechCrunch, which cites sources close to the company.
AR functionality while using the Specs will enable targeted advertising appearing overlaid in the real world, in the view of the wearer but not to anyone else.
Snap has already incorporated AR into its social network Snapchat. In April, it launched 'new world lenses', which let users insert animation in their live video recording that would appear as if they were in the real world.
Snap is not the only company betting on AR. Last week, at the annual Apple developer meeting in San Jose, California, the company focused on AR technology and how it would incorporate it in its next operating systems.
The company rolled out an AR kit for developers to create augmented reality applications for iPhones and iPads, Reuters reported. To show off the tools, Apple invited Wingnut AR, the company formed by "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson, on stage.
Jackson then showed how a 3D science-fiction film could be superimposed on a table top and how the devices could be used to interact with it.
New indoor maps of areas like malls and airports, as indicated by Apple in the new iOS, might be laying the groundwork to display information over images of those places in the future.
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