Israel’s Position as a Pioneering Force in AR will Reach Countless Industries

Israel’s commitment to innovation has positioned the startup nation at the forefront of emerging technology. Now, as the age of Web 3.0 and the metaverse continues to dawn, we’re seeing Israel’s emergence as a hub for augmented reality. 

We’ve already seen Israel invest heavily in delivering innovative new technologies to support the metaverse with a NIS 3M investment allocated towards building into the new technological frontier.

Such lofty ambitions have been shared by ​​Dadi Gadot, Israel’s Meta executive who is confident that Israel will be a driving force in the next generation of the internet, which is set to lean heavily on reality technology. 

“Israel has the three main components required for these sorts of companies,” Gadot explained. “Content experts that know how to build apps, engineers that can plan chips and sensors and people who can do both. We’re putting a lot of money working with Israeli startups on the Metaverse. We’re priming Israel to play a major Metaverse role right from the get go, and it’s happening.”

While the metaverse is considered to be the technological landscape of tomorrow, we’re already seeing Israeli firms deliver on their potential in the field of AR today, and there’s plenty to be excited about across a range of industries thanks to the innovations driven by Israel’s tech hubs. 

Building the AR Hardware of Tomorrow

Will smart eyewear ever replace our much loved smartphones? If they do, it’s likely that the glasses we wear will have been developed in Israel. Considering the fact that over 75% of adults need some form of vision correction, smart eyewear could be revolutionary. 

There’s a long procession of Israeli firms that are well-positioned to build the eyewear of tomorrow, and startups like Eyejets have built its iteration of smart glasses, dubbed the EyeVis, as an eventual competitor for the smartphone. 

The eyewear utilizes a retinal display that’s capable of projecting content like images or video onto the wearer’s eye, meaning that there would be little need for a phone, or perhaps even a television in the future. 

Other Israeli firms like Lumus have also taken to the development of augmented reality glasses, and are already working on more lightweight models for better comfort. 

There’s also widespread interest in Israeli augmented reality firms among some of the world’s largest companies. Last year, Walmart acquired AR optical startup Memomi, which is a firm geared towards generating optical ‘try-on’ experiences for users. 

Also acquired by Walmart in 2021 was Zeekit, a startup which was capable of delivering virtual fitting room experiences for shoppers. 

Alibaba has also been busy acquiring Israeli AR firms, and in 2019 opted to buy Infinity Augmented Reality, a startup that provided augmented reality solutions for gaming, retail, and medical industries. 

Catering to Users on an Enterprise and Entertainment Level

Israel has also been busy delivering customized experiences in augmented reality. In August 2022, concert promoter Carmi Wurtman built an AR experience for children at Expo Tel Aviv convention center.

Dubbed a ‘giant augmented reality arcade,’ each visitor receives their own avatar and can work their way through several interactive activity rooms throughout the experience. The event was called ‘X-Space’ and Wurtman believes that “every single room there is a wink at what we can do,” hinting at an even more immersive future for Israel. 

“In the morning we can have Batman or SpongeBob and at night, digital Bob Marley or Star Trek. It’s a great way for artists to generate more recognition and estates are happy to keep their brands alive,” Wurtman added. 

At the slightly less entertaining-but-equally-essential end of the spectrum, we’re also seeing real world use cases of AR collaboration solutions for utilities. 

Israel’s national water company has begun deploying AR smart glasses and a mobile app platform as a means of helping workers to streamline their repair services. The solution helps field engineers to access real-time remote help from experts or vendors from any location in the world. 

Making Waves in the World of Healthcare

We’re also seeing Israeli innovations that had originally been developed with defenses in mind being repurposed for healthcare. One such example is the augmented reality headsets that were once developed for fighter pilots, which have been adapted to help eye surgeons. 

The Beyeonics One has been so successful that it’s being rolled out throughout Europe after receiving the CE mark of approval in 2022. 

Already, the technology has been used for 2,000 surgeries in the US during its research phases, and has won approval from the Food and Drug Administration. 

The AR headsets can bring pioneering change for those requiring treatment for cataracts, where they will have the ability to read more on their condition and determine whether they’re happy to accept more accurate, digitally guided procedures to aid their condition. 

This news comes in the wake of Israel performing the world’s first augmented reality 3D eye-socket surgery in 2019, and signifies the level of progress undertaken in the years that followed the landmark event. 

With more innovations in the field of AR expected as the age of the metaverse continues to dawn, Israel’s position as a leader in reality technology is likely to win more global interest from enterprises and users alike. As such a prosperous future looms over the horizon, all eyes will be set on the tech hubs of Tel-Aviv as the startup nation continues to harness more sophisticated technology.