.png)
For a lot of consumers, Pokémon GO wasn’t their first exposure to augmented reality — it was the dog-selfie lens inside Snapchat.
In the past few years, consumer use hasn’t evolved too heavily when it comes to what people are actually using AR for, even though technical capabilities have taken some giant leaps. Snap was an early leader, but now the industry is much more crowded with Apple, Google, Facebook and others all staffing up extensive teams focused on smartphone-based AR capabilities.
At our one-day TC Sessions: AR/VR event in LA on October 18, we’ll be chatting with Eitan Pilipski, the VP of Snap’s Camera Platform, a role that would seem to be pretty central to the long-term vision of a company that has long referred to itself as “a camera company.”
Snap has been throwing some updates to their developer tools as of late, especially for their Lens Studio product, which gives developers access to tools to create AR masks and experiences. There’s a lot of room to grow, and it will be interesting to see how much depth Snap can pull from these short experiences and whether it sees “lenses” evolving to bring users more straightforward utility in the near term.
The company hasn’t had the easiest bout as a public company lately, but it’s clear that it sees computer vision and augmented reality as key parts of the larger vision it hopes to achieve. At our LA event we’ll look to dive deeper into how they’re approaching these technologies and what it can bring consumers beyond a little added enjoyment.
As a special offer to TechCrunch readers, save 35 percent on $149 General Admission tickets when you use this link or code TCFAN. Student tickets are just $45 and can be booked here.
