Say hello to macOS High Sierra, Apple's newest operating system update for Macs. Whether you're on an iMac or one of the Touch Bar-outfitted MacBook Pro models, there is a lot to love in this latest release of Apple's desktop operating system.
If you've been wondering about another practical, genuinely useful and indispensable real-life use case for ARKit beyond mapping and navigation, this might be it.
As a big sucker for augmented reality demos built with Apple's ARKit framework, I tirelessly search for them virtually (pun intended) every day on YouTube.
ARKit, Apple's new framework in iOS 11 for building augmented reality experiences for iPhone and iPad, has been used to recreate the music video for the 1980s hit song “Take on Me” by Norwegian band A-ha in real-time, highlighting ARKit's potential for film-making.
If the awesome ARKit-powered measuring tape hasn't knocked your socks off, how about PCalc, the best scientific calculator available on App Store, in augmented reality?
There's certainly no shortage of impressive demos of awesome augmented reality apps made possible by Apple's new ARKit framework in iOS 11, but this new proof-of-concept app from independent game developer Duncan Walker certainly takes things up a notch.
An extension of Metaio's patent that was assigned to Apple following its acquisition of the company in 2015, Apple's new patent application published Thursday by the United States Patents and Trademark Office (USPTO) details potential applications for augmented reality while illustrating a rumored head-mounted display Apple is said to be working on.
Apple's new ARKit framework for building augmented reality experiences for compatible iPhone and iPad devices is off to a great start and already Facebook is taking notice, according to a new report Thursday from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
The author claims that Facebook has been hard at work developing an inexpensive headset, code-named “Pacific”, that is expected to bring virtual reality experiences to the masses without requiring a beefy computer or a compatible smartphone.
“The idea is that someone will be able to pull the headset out of their bag and watch movies on a flight just the way you can now with a phone or tablet,” reads the article.
It should be priced aggressively at $200 and release at some point next year, representing “an entirely new category”. According to people familiar with the plans, the device will provide a similar interface to Samsung’s VR Gear that users could control by a wireless remote.
The headset should be powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon mobile chip that would make it superior to Samsung's Gear VR headset in terms of gaming in virtual reality. Unlike the current Oculus Rift hardware, the upcoming gizmo won't include positional tracking technology.
An excerpt from the article:
This means that the device won’t be able to tell where its user is spatially, which is useful for tasks like virtual rock climbing. A future version of the product will have that technology, according to a person familiar with the plans.
According to sources, the headset will let users play immersive games, watch video, use social networking apps and so forth. It resembles a more compact version of the current Oculus Rift and will be lighter than Samsung’s Gear VR headset.
Handset maker Xiaomi and its manufacturers are said to build 2018's Oculus-branded device.
And later this year, Facebook allegedly plans to announce a more affordable wireless headset that it is betting will popularize virtual reality “the way Apple did the smartphone”.
Oculus spokesman Alan Cooper said via email:
We don’t have a product to unveil at this time, however we can confirm we’re making several significant technology investments in the standalone VR category.
Facebook's said it’s also working on yet another device, code-named “Santa Cruz” and best described as a wireless Oculus Rift “with the full power of the original device sans PC.“
Facebook acquired Kickstarter-funded Oculus startup in 2014 for about $2 billion.
IDC estimated that Samsung leads the pack in terms of VR device shipments with 22 percent of the global market for VR devices, followed by Sony, HTC and Facebook's Oculus Rift with about five percent of the market, or less than 100,000 units sold.
Apple's ARKit framework is slowly but surely emerging as one of the best new features in iOS 11. Many developers have built everything from virtual tape measures and Minecraft to ballerinas made out of wood dancing on floors. It's remarkable that most of the ARKit demos we've seen so far were built in a matter of hours or days, not weeks or months.
Today, we want to highlight a few additional ARKit demos that we've curated. These videos highlight ARKit's incredibly reliable and accurate tracking features that don't require any special hardware beyond the sensors and the camera already present in your iPhone or iPad.
First up, we have this demo showing jumping between different planes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj3PbRTgpQk
ARKit automatically detects horizontal surfaces, called planes, such as tables and floors, and can track and place objects on smaller feature points as well. This is all handled automatically, with uncanny precision, using only data from your iOS device's camera and sensors.
The following pair of videos demonstrate a virtual character interacting with the environment by autonomously jumping a flight of stairs and between different surfaces of the real world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vozrtqe7MZY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7REJj_bN-c
Interactions between virtual objects and real people are easy as a pie with ARKit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdAqD4uIbX0
The Tracking Monster demo, seen below, uses ARKit and the Unity engine to track a monster with the dynamically updated shadows based on changing lighting conditions in the real world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IYT-OCWqDg
Maze games will never be the same!
Speaking of games, here's Tic-Tac-Tio in augmented reality, developed By Bjarne Lundgren.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBBq473vuMo
And last but not least, Mixed Reality Design posted the following example of an augmented reality app depicting an alien vessel hovering ominously above a construction site.
Hollywood will soon invade your smartglasses airspace → fact https://t.co/jLYm1YcBW2 pic.twitter.com/to2qqfFIVr
— Mixed Reality Design (@MixedrealityD) July 4, 2017
Head over to the Mixed Reality Design's Twitter account for more AR examples like this.
While it's not entirely clear that this particular demo uses ARKit, it does highlight the possibilities for AR movie trailers that could be coming soon to your phone.
Be sure to check out other interesting ARKit apps and demos, including an upcoming furniture-ordering app from Ikea, a measuring tape that blew up on the web, an ARKit-powered VR mode in Maps, an inter-dimensional portal and much more.
“I think there is a gigantic runway that we have here with the iPhone and the iPad,” Apple executive Greg Joswiak said of ARKit in a recent interview with The Australian. “The fact we have a billion of these devices out there is quite an opportunity for developers.”
How do you like these ARKit demos? Which one is your favorite, and why? Chime in with your thoughts and observations in the comments section below.