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CHERLYNN LOW: When you
think of augmented reality,

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the first thing you think
of usually isn't it sound.

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Like here at South
by Southwest, Bose

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launched something called Bose
AR, which is basically laying

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a layer of audio on top
of your surroundings

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and your environment
to make for audio AR.

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Here at the show, we
were able to check

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out the prototype of sunglasses
with Bose AR built in.

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Bear in mind, these
are concepts right now

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and haven't really rolled
out, and will only be here

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for developers in the summer.

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But still, what I've seen
so far is fascinating.

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But first, what on
earth is audio AR?

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The idea is that,
instead of having

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visual cues laid
over your vision,

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this is the audio version of it.

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Right?

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When you're walking around,
you can hear extra information

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about what you're
looking at, and it's

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through headphones, or
glasses, or anything

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you can wear on your head.

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Bose hasn't settled
on a format just yet.

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It's going to work with partners
to bring this to market.

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But for now, what we're checking
out is this pair of sunglasses.

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In a very brief
demo here in Austin,

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we took the glasses out on a
very short block called Rainey

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St. and looked at
things around us,

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whether it's a bar, or a
building, or a restaurant,

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and we were prompted to double
tap the side of the glasses

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to kind of pull up
more information

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about what we're looking at.

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So for example, I
stopped in front

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of a place called Eisenhower
and tapped the right side

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of the glasses twice.

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Bose AR's platform
was able to tell me

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that this was what
sort of food it

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served, what sort of
wait time to expect,

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and what the rating was.

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- (FROM GLASSES) Eisenhower is
a renovated, century-old home.

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It is now a bar with
infused-liquor cocktails,

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local beers, and an
outdoor environment.

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CHERLYNN LOW: Of course, this
is all, again, just the test.

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Bose will be working
with partners like Yelp

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and TripAdvisor to feed me more
comprehensive and thoughtful

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information about the
places I'm looking at.

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It's able to tell
what I'm looking

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at with the mix of sensors like
GPS on the companion phone,

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as well as the 9-Axis
sensor onboard,

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to tell the direction
that I'm gazing.

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Of course, in this really
limited demo that we took on,

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it worked really well.

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I mean, things that I looked
at were accurate more or less

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a few steps away.

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It did serve information
that was helpful to me.

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What I was more impressed by,
however, was the audio quality

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on these things.

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It's not bone conduction, and
it's not an in-ear earbud.

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However, it's a projection
technique that kind of shoots

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the audio into your ear canal.

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It sounded really great.

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Songs, like "Valerie"
by Amy Winehouse,

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sounded really good
and clear in my ears.

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But of course, from
this video you're

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not going to be able to get
the full effect, unfortunately.

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Of course, what we just saw here
was only a basic implementation

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of what Bose AR can do.

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When the developer
kit and SE care

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are available in
the summer, people

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can start taking that and
running wild with their ideas.

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So hey, let's hope to see
more interesting applications

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in the months to come.

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For now, though, that was
a very tantalizing preview

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of what should be an
impressive platform

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when it becomes available.

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So stay tuned for more
of that cool stuff

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out of South by Southwest
2018 here on engadget.com

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