One week in to 2019 and the perfect time to start making predictions about what the year ahead holds for AR porn.

Many don’t know this but augmented reality porn has been around for almost a decade now, although, it’s only been the last year it really begun accelerating. Since 2010 we’ve seen a bunch of developers taking their hands to AR such as PinkVisual and EligoVision, but nothing ever really came from any of them.

Fast Forward to 2018 And we Start to See Vast Improvements.

Smartphones have become more equipped to run AR software resulting in some augmented reality porn demos and applications coming to light. Both ARKit and ARCore have improved and now offer some pretty cool features that have come in use for AR porn developers. 3D Object detection and tracking, for example have been some of the key features that allow a number of augmented reality porn apps to work as they do.

2018 saw Casey Calvert and Donny Sins become the world’s very first AR pornstars. It saw the introduction of AI, voice control and custom personalities. It saw AR hentai, 3D body scans, digitally created companions and holograms of real-life pre-recorded girls performing in augmented reality.

Last year has shown that AR porn is on the rise, which begs the questions, what can be expected in 2019? And will it be the year that it goes mainstream? These questions are dependent on a few factors.

Technology

There’re predictions all over the internet about the growth of AR tech and what can be expected over the next few years. Some sources report that the AR industry worth is gonna grow as high as $170 billion within 3 years, while others estimate it to be as low as $60 billion within the same time-frame. It’s hard to make an exact prediction of the speed in which AR grows, but what is clear is 2019 is gonna be a big year for AR technology.

Mobile

5G is set to come in to force in 2019. This is important for augmented reality porn because, to put it simply, the future of AR is dependent on a reliable 5G network. The highly complex input mechanisms of AR require a lot of data to be processed and 4G just isn’t up to the mark.

Immersion is key for AR porn so a bad connection will ruin the experience. The next generation of video formats will be much more data-intensive than what we see today and will require a much stronger network. ABI Research anticipates that 5G will bring about a 10X improvement in throughout, a 10X decrease in latency, a 100X improvement in network efficiency and a 100X improvement in traffic capacity compared to a 4G network. This enormous increase in mobile network speed, capacity, and reliability will see superfast streaming and instantaneous downloads.

Headsets

Mobile will continue to be the main driver for mainstream consumer adoption and accessibility in 2019. However, this is the year we can expect to see the release of Hololens 2. We can expect the new HoloLens to be lighter, considerably smaller and with a field of view that is twice as large as the current one. We can also expect it to include full hands tracking, eye tracking and integration with AI thanks to a dedicated chip.

While we’re just days away from the CES 2019, some are asking, is this when Microsoft will showcase the second generation Hololens? The “Out of Stock” label for the current Hololens on the Microsoft store could be an indication that the launch of the 2nd gen could be coming soon. Perhaps they will, but I don’t think so. I think it’s likely that Microsoft will launch it at their BUILD conference in April or May, this seems a more appropriate audience for such a big launch.

Rumours say the cost of the new Hololens will be between $1500-$2000. The price is less than Microsoft’s current mixed reality headset, but still too expensive to be considered consumer-friendly. Considering Magicleap has prohibited adult content on their device and Meta enters 2019 with funding issues, its currently on Microsoft’s shoulders to provide a device that can power truly immersive AR porn experiences.

Far less expensive options such as Holokit and Zapbox are available which work using your smartphone, similar to Google Cardboard but for augmented reality.

Other companies have made AR glasses such as North Focals, Vuzix Blade; Snap Spectacles v2 and Bose. However, these are products are smart specs and come in little or no use for AR porn.

So Will 2019 be The Year AR porn Becomes Mainstream?

The short answer to your question is no. The industry is now starting to pick up pace and 2019 is going to set the foundations.

We can expect more demos and updates to come in 2019. Badoink, for example, made their AR porn debut last year with the Susy Gala striptease are rumoured to release more content this year.

3D Hologroup are always updating their software and expect to see more with Naughty America’s strip club app.

With AR capabilities set to massively improve, this will likely gain the interest of other developers and porn companies so expect to see more content being released by other studios.

There’s still a road ahead before augmented reality porn really takes off, but 2019 should be an interesting year.