The future we were waiting for had already happened. It was June 5
th, 2017, when Apple launched ARkit. On that day, it kicked off the mobile augmented reality (AR) era, continuing with iOS 11’s launch on September 19
th of that year, and the months and years of ARkit app development still to come. As for the market potential of AR, it is enormous. According to
ResearchAndMarkets.com, the spending is projected to jump from $11.14 billion in 2018 to $60.55 billion by 2023, representing a compound annual growth rate of 40%.
It is clear that AR is a fast growing and emerging technology.
An emerging market that is also quickly growing is cannabis.
Now imagine combining the two. Any company that enters both markets with its technology stack would have an immense potential risk/ reward as both sectors continued to quickly grow.
That is exactly the plan for
NexTech AR Solutions Corp. (C.NTAR, Forum), soon to be the very first publicly-traded AR Company that has an AR platform designed for the cannabis space.
First, a little background is in order. When the terms like “AR” and “holograms” are used, its common to think of something out of the
“Star Wars” movies where an illuminated 3D image of a person appears and can communicate in real-time. Such things belong in fantasy and could never work in reality, right? Well, NexTech management states that this is
exactly what their platforms can deliver today and CEO Evan Gappelberg explained that the holograms are photo-realistic.
“It’s 3D, it’s captivating, it’s eye-popping … it’s very real.”
The Company has a “multi-pronged” approach to creating shareholder value by harnessing this emerging technology through several platforms. The main one is their ARitize app, which is needed to have the AR experience. In 2017,
Apple launched AR kit while
Google launched its version called AR Core, which serve as the foundation for the ARitize app platform. With the app, a user simply holds their phone in front of an object, like a package of cannabis, and like magic while looking through the camera of the app what was in the package pops out into thin air as a 3D object. Information on the product would appear, possibly even a person via a hologram who would go into more detail about it.
This is how the app applies to cannabis and so far, NexTech is the
only Company to point its augmented reality tech toward that market. We are mere days from recreational cannabis becoming legal in Canada and producers are already promoting their products to consumers, however there is a very steep learning curve around it for much of the public who aren’t already avid consumers. In comparison, the average consumer may not know the difference between Sativa or Indica strains, the brands, products on the market or what kind of effects they could deliver.
Enter:
Buddythe Virtual Budtender, a 3D holographic ambassador and educator for consumers on all-things cannabis. In the video below, the Budtender, created by NexTech, talks about the specific Sour Diesel and Blue Dream, strains; their distinct flavours, the kind of “head-highs” that can be expected from both as well as ordering options.
The 3D holograms are floating in the room with you, so that you don’t have to go to the dispensary, the dispensary can come to you. Or at least, you can learn what you need to know before going into the dispensary.
Nextech AR Solutions ARitize Budtender from ARitize on Vimeo.
Cannabis’ market potential has been covered in-depth leading up to its legalization in Canada, The globa
l legal marijuana market is expected to reach $146.4 billion (USD) by end of 2025, according to a new report by
Grand View Research, with 250 publicly traded companies … and growing.
Simply offering a cutting-edge technology in this space at this time is enough to warrant investor excitement. However, the potential here isn’t limited to cannabis. NexTech is about to roll out its ARlivestream platform, which aligns with the
“Star Wars” analogy perfectly. From their studio, they can film someone standing in front of a green screen and broadcast that person’s whole body as an 3D AR hologram anywhere in the world via a livestream channel through the app.
The Company also has exclusive rights to a large format live event ARholoscreen technology for the Cannabis industry. Speakers ranging from Tony Robbins to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have already been teleported to audiences around the globe using this proven technology. Unlike the mobile app experience, which is ideal for shorter experiences, the ARholoscreen is perfect for live events like the Cannabis cup or investor tradeshows, where a person can be beamed in from across the globe and have two-way conversation without having to get into a plane, train or car.
Another key part of NexTechs product offering is its ARuniversity a learning on-demand educational platform which it has exclusive rights to with an option to acquire from Ed Cetera. In the recent past it has been used by the Library of Congress as a platform which allowed people to create their own PDF or power-point docs to compile info on a certain topic, currently its being upgraded to allow for a 3D AR learning experience. Through this platform for example, a user could learn how to make homemade pasta from a hologram chef who can demonstrate in their home how they make homemade pasta. The Company is in the process of upgrading the learning platform’s interface which it expects to launch in Q1 2019.
In the short term the company is beefing up its staff of 12 and developing its major AR platforms to meet the growing market demand. The intermediate term goal for the Company is to create a self-service platform for its ARLivestreaming business to allow for anyone to become a hologram from a home broadcast studio. Currently the video live-streaming market is growing at an alarming rate.
In 2016, it was already a more than $30 billion industry and it’s just getting started. It’s projected to more than double in growth by 2021 to become a more than $70 billion industry.
Twitch.tv is one of the biggest live streaming sites in the world right now.
In the beginning there were mainframes, then came the PC, then the world wide web, the iPhone and now its mixed reality; or augmented reality, virtual reality and AI, or some combination of them all.
AR has been available for some time, made popular several years ago by the mobile
“Pokémon GO” game, but since this novelty, there is so much more the technology is actually capable of. We are still in the early stage of AR technology becoming truly revolutionary and NexTech has a first-mover advantage generating content and offering AR platforms. Technology moves fast, and things are quickly about to change.
In 2019, Samsung is planning to release its AR enhanced
smart glasses and in 2020, Apple will release
its brand of AR smart glasses. These won’t be like the failed
“Google Glass” endeavor or a clunky VR headset, but a refined effort to drive the mixed reality revolution. With this technology, everything discussed in this article would be hands-free, and flipping the interface would change everything to become entirely about the experience. These cool and stylish high-tech glasses can double as reading glasses, while simply tapping the side activates augmented reality experiences and its controls.
Imagine a shopping experience, where digital signage will be floating in midair in the aisles where every product on the shelf would have digital data appear that is tailored to that consumer’s diet, their likes and dislikes. The opportunity in Ecommerce is massive where businesses are
already looking at how AR can add value to their products from new advertising opportunities to artificial intelligence to even trying on clothes at home with a holographic personal shopper helping along the way.
AR will also be a crucial asset for navigation when driving where the driver’s navigation is just build into their glasses. Consumers will likely line up around the block to get their hands on these glasses like they did for the iPhone when it was first launched, or even the Apple Watch. Investors doing their due diligence ought to keep an eye out as one of the first things a person might see in this new augmented reality world would be content that has been generated by NexTech AR Solutions.
This isn’t a phone upgrade, it’s a paradigm shift.
To download the ARitize app on iPhone,
click here. For Android users,
click here.
www.nextechar.com
FULL DISCLOSURE: NexTech AR Solutions Corp. is a paid client of Stockhouse Publishing.