Augmented World

Apple managed to instantly raise the excitement levels of the developers in attendance at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with the introduction of the wonderful ARKit framework.

What we didn’t plan for on the back of that was the slew of prototypes and app ideas utilizing ARKit that would ultimately end up exciting device owners. Now, as ARKit approaches the mainstream, we’re seeing a set of highly polished creations, including one called MeasureKit by developer Rinat Khanov.

A number of creative developers had the same train of thought when ARKit was first announced. In addition to the usual gaming implementations, we have already seen some developers showing just how performant and accurate ARKit will be when used for measuring purposes. 

Khanov has taken things a few steps further with MeasureKit by ensuring that his app best uses ARKit and the real world to be able to offer a variety of different ways to measure using nothing more than the device and a little bit of user interaction.

The power of this tool comes from the fact that it offers a very simple mechanism to measure different things in different situations. And all of this is offered to the user with a very small learning curve, making it essentially accessible to anyone who owns an iOS 11-powered iPhone and is in need of having something measured. 

From a feature perspective, users can expect to find a trajectory mode, the ability to measure distance from a specific point of reference, as well as being able to measure angles, height of individuals, and even build cubes that are placed into the real world.

This is definitely by far one of the most fun and innovative ways to use ARKit, but which is also applicable to most users in the real world. When it goes live on the App Store, presumably in the coming weeks, it’s almost a given that it will have an instant user-base.

It’s likely that MeasureKit will be joined on the iOS App Store by an impressive range of ARKit-powered apps, including zombie games, portal-based experiences that look to transport people to other worlds, and even official offerings by multinational retailers and companies like IKEA.

Quando Apple mette il suo zampino in una nuova tecnologia schizzano le vendite stimate di un determinato prodotto: è quello che succederà anche con i visori AR e VR. Secondo IDC, complice l’annunciato interesse di Apple, le vendite di questi visori è stimata in 100 milioni, entro il 2021.

E così, è bastato l’annuncio del supporto Apple alle tecnologie di realtà aumentata e realtà virtuale con il prossimo iOS 11 e ARKit, oltre ai Mac più potenti, per far aumentare le previsioni delle adozioni di questi visori. Lo studio condotto da IDC rivela anche altre curiosità: generalmente sono stati i visori per smartphone ad avere avuto un picco di vendite durante tutto l’anno scorso, mentre i visori con schermo integrato, come quello Sony, HTC o Oculus, sono diventati popolari solo verso la fine dei 365 giorni appena trascorsi.

Peraltro, scommette IDC, nei prossimi 18 mesi il mercato premierà ancor di più i visori VR per PC, grazie al maggior numero di produttori che si è deciso, o che si deciderà, ad entrare in questo settore. Il maggiore successo di questi visori dipenderà, da un lato, dai requisiti hardware sempre meno stringenti per il corretto utilizzo di queste periferiche, dall’altro dai prezzi molto più contenuti.

Come già anticipato, Apple ha contribuito a far ritoccare le stime di vendita dei visori verso l’alto, dimostrando alla WWDC 2017 di come i nuovi Mac potranno supportare al meglio queste piattaforme, anche grazie alle nuove API grafiche Metal 2. Anche i prossimi iPhone contribuiranno ad incrementare l’interesse da parte del pubblico in queste tecnologie, con ARKit che semplifica il processo di creazione delle applicazioni di realtà virtuale o realtà aumentata per piattaforme iOS.

In ultimo, a conclusione del rapporto, IDC indica che, sebbene i visori VR continueranno a rappresentare la fetta maggiore di questo business, sarà il segmento AR a generare una crescita di volume maggiore. Ed è qui che, probabilmente, viene fuori il merito di iOS 11 e di Apple, che ha già dimostrato le incredibili capacità dei suoi iPhone in questo nuovo settore.

Until the Apple product named ARKit hits the market, Hola, an app developed by a VR/AR company called 8i, will hog the limelight.

 Holograms are three-dimensional objects, either people or animals which can be downloaded and placed to the real world.
Since the news of Apple incorporating Augmented Reality (AR) to mobile operating system started doing the rounds, excitement levels have gone up. Until the Apple product named ARKit hits the market, Hola, an app developed by a VR/AR company called 8i, will hog the limelight. Hola helps the user place ‘holograms’ in their world.

Holograms are three-dimensional objects, either people or animals which can be downloaded and placed to the real world. But when you move around, it need not come with you.

The Verge writes about the flipside: “The objects can’t interact with the world you’re placing them into. The app isn’t recognising surfaces or mapping the world, it’s just remembering generally where you placed the object so that if you turn away or move around, the hologram stays relatively put. This is fine if you’re placing things in an open area.”

ARKit is defined as the “framework that allows you to easily create unparalleled augmented reality experiences for iPhone and iPad.” It was mentioned along with the announcement of iOS 11 at WWDC.