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At the recent WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) in California, Apple announced a tool called ARKit, which has been designed to provide advanced Augmented Reality (AR) features and capabilities on iOS.
It will support ‘fast and stable motion tracking’, meaning digital objects displayed on screen will appear seamlessly as part of the user’s real-world surroundings. Think Pokémon GO, but smoother, quicker, and better.
So, what does this actually mean?
Well, we’ve pulled together 11 facts, thoughts, and conclusions from the big announcement to help you understand the magnitude of this exciting development.
Apple’s Augmented Reality - Here’s What You Need to Know
1. Apple announced that the new iOS 11 (released this fall) will support ARKit for Augmented Reality (AR).
2. What is it? - In short, it integrates the iOS device camera and motion features to produce Augmented Reality experiences in iOs apps.
3. The ARKit is a new framework. It will allow developers to easily create unparalleled AR experiences for iPhone and iPad.
4. This will blend digital objects and information with the real-world environment around us, resulting in a new way of interaction.
5. After keeping something of a low profile, Apple is finally in the AR game!
6. In the words of Apple CEO Tim Cook, AR is going to be “huge.”
“I regard it as a big idea like the smartphone. The smartphone is for everyone, we don’t have to think the iPhone is about a certain demographic, or country or vertical market: it’s for everyone. I think AR is that big, it’s HUGE.”
Tim Cook, Apple CEO.
7. In two years, everyone will know what Augmented Reality is, and what AR stands for.
8. It’s a game-changing technological advancement; one that will offer a better user experience than 2D.
9. It’s exactly like the Ford Model T - there are other AR tools available, but ARKit will be the first used by the mass market. In fact, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering Craig Federighi describes it as “AR like you’ve never seen it before.”
10. Your typical mobile app is about to change. Mobile developers aren’t enough anymore; Unity (and Unreal) is the new trend in technology. If you’re building the iOS app of the future, you need to hire Unity developers ASAP!
11. Finally, remember Pokémon GO? ARKit will offer Pokémon GO on steroids.
The Largest AR Platform in the World
Up until this announcement, we’ve seen third-party AR-centric apps like the aforementioned Pokémon GO and Snapchat dominate in both popularity and functionality.
But this announcement means Apple’s devices and software will now be primed to enable AR features from the outset.
While Google has some skin in the AR game with Tango, it’s only available on select Android devices. ARKit, on the other hand, will be available across all iOS devices, making it - according to Federighi - the “largest AR platform in the world.”
And we can’t wait to see it in action.
Apple’s plan for Augmented Reality were so much in secret … but now, its all revealed … We have the Apple Augmented Reality right here! What a shot by Apple, I am so grateful to this, and the new iPhone 8 will be AR ready with multiple sensing cameras and also will have enhanced localization capability. Will capture very detailed data about the environment, and the phone can react to the objects around it. I am truly amazed by the ARKit - Apple Augmented Reality and for sure there is a AR use for in almost anything - like games, entertainment, business … also in music, health, navigation. We have enormous and huge potential with ARKit!
As a developers like us are already running wild with Apple Augmented Reality platform, even through it won’t be available until the release of iOS 11. We are already seeing incredible tech demos of applications like accurate AR rules, or 3D drawing tools or backyard rocket landing. I can imagine the ARKit as a testbed for future and Apple’s future of course, and the company didn’t choose to restrict it for the future, and in that case it offers a fully-fledged platform that people can easily use.
How about this…Finally Apple started to give developers the ability to build AR applications for iPhone and iPad as well with a recently released beta of iOS 11. Only bothers me the fact that Apple Augmented Reality isn’t available yet for users.
ARKit apps and games will not be exactly the same on what we have now. I expect so many things (I am an optimist :-)) and all these improvements that Apple is preparing is the fact that they will try to make their way to the next iPhone as well. Apple first must be sure that AR is the best on iPhone, the new display must be a big part of this experience and then the Apple Augmented Reality can start rolling!
What a surprise! I expected something big, but this came out to be something bigger than expected! Apple Augmented Reality!
Therefore I am so delighted and grateful to Apple and before Apple built ARKit (Apple Augmented Reality) into the iPhone - it was truly difficult to build such applications. On example … Google has been pushing for similar applications through Tango project, but hose kind of applications require a specific phone with a special kind of camera that will tell how far the objects are from it.
Some will say that its too early to determine the ultimate accuracy of this kind of apps (which is ridiculous I say) - I will say, not only that these apps are promising, also they will be in everyday use, will be very solid and will become an unbreakable part of human’s life.
Apple announced something that was “a light year ahead” of everything else that’s out there. Most people know or have heard and even experienced the Augmented Reality (AR) from Snapchat or Pokemon GO. The iPhone is going to be the AR device of the next five years for sure and ARKit will allow developers to build rich AR experiences far beyond what we’ve experienced in AR today. Apple Augmented Reality will help bring AR into the mainstream faster and better than anyone else. I know people that are already prepared for the future … Apple Augmented Reality immediatelly will reach millions of people who already have the requisite hardware. So … if you are looking for the AR innovator, once again Apple looks like the likeliest “suspect”.