Augmented Reality (AR)

An augmented reality Sudoku-solving app that only works with completely empty puzzles might be kind of pointless, but it definitely serves as an impressive demonstration of just what can be done when you use the combined power of three Apple frameworks.

Magic Sudoku uses Apple’s image analysis software Vision to read the puzzles, the Core ML framework to solve them and ARKit to present the solution as an overlay on the puzzle itself …

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple’s public release of iOS 11 yesterday includes a lot of great new updates. One of the most anticipated new features is the ability for iPhones and iPads with an A9 chip or later to run augmented reality apps made possible by Apple’s ARKit platform. Let’s take a look at some of the best AR enabled apps available now.

Expand
Expanding
Close

If you enjoy reviewing your cycle rides, runs or hikes in Strava, a new app lets you do this in augmented reality.

Fitness AR projects a 3D terrain map of your path onto a table-top, and allows you to walk around it, viewing it from different angles, as well as move in close to check out details …

Expand
Expanding
Close

During Apple’s Special Event today, they used some onstage time to demo off the power of ARKit and Augmented Reality in the new iPhone 8. Apple announced that each camera on the new iPhone 8 is individually calibrated to work as best as possible within ARKit.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Augmented reality looks set to have quite an impact on the beauty sector. After recently looking at a demo app for lipstick and other make-up, AR specialist ModiFace is back with a new demo app – this one allowing you to see how different hair colors would look before you take the plunge.

Using AI powered by analysing a staggering 220,000 hair color photos, the app shows in real-time video how your hair would look in any color of your choice …

Expand
Expanding
Close

ARKit will be available to everyone in just a couple of weeks, and while we’ve seen a variety of applications that take advantage of it thus far, more polished implementations are emerging as we near the public release. Today, developer Rinat Khanov has unveiled his new augmented reality app, MeasureKit.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Augmented Reality may have been around for decades in various forms, but it’s clear that Apple’s enthusiastic backing in the form of ARKit has breathed new life into the medium.

We’ve already seen demo apps for such diverse things as virtual make-up counters, car manuals, film-making, music videos, navigation and much more. And the latest examples allow you to try out paintings by seeing how they’ll look when hung in your home, and track down your misplaced belongings visually …

Expand
Expanding
Close

We’ve been learning more about ARKit over the past couple of days, Apple yesterday sharing its Human Interface Guidelines for the technology – and getting a better look at the Ikea app first teased at WWDC back in June.

CNET has teased out a few more details from developers working with the framework, including the somewhat surprising fact that ARKit can’t detect walls …

Expand
Expanding
Close

Update: Apple has announced that the Swift app development curriculum noted below is being expanded to more community colleges.

Apple today announced the App Development with Swift curriculum will now be offered in more than 30 community college systems across the country in the 2017-2018 school year, providing opportunities to millions of students to build apps that will prepare them for careers in software development and information technology. The Austin Community College District (ACC), one of the nation’s largest higher learning institutions, will begin offering the course to its 74,000 students this fall.

It will be a bit of a disappointment if this turns out to be the entirety of Apple’s announcements today …

Tim Cook is currently travelling around the USA, with stops in Ohio and Iowa before moving on to Austin, Texas. According to a speech by Austin mayor Steve Adler, Apple will be announcing a new nationwide training program later today.

I’m in a press conference tomorrow with Apple, and Tim Cook is here as we’re announcing a training program for people. They’re announcing it all over the country.

The visit to Iowa came ahead of Apple confirming plans for a new $1.3B data center in Waukee …

Expand
Expanding
Close

The cool ARKit demo apps keep coming. The latest one, from a developer specializing in augmented reality apps for the beauty industry, shows how trying on lipstick could become a whole lot easier.

ModiFace has put together two videos showing how the tech works. In the first, the woman simply shoots some front-facing video of herself while the app virtually applies different shades of make-up …

Expand
Expanding
Close

The augmented reality apps keep coming. Car-maker Genesis has ditched a conventional owners’ manual in favor of an AR app for its 2017 G80 and G90 models.

The app provides 135 how-to videos for common user maintenance procedures, with augmented reality features to identify car parts and launch the guides …

Expand
Expanding
Close

We’ve already seen how ARKit is helping developers create some impressive augmented reality apps, from virtual tape measures and navigation to fun things like games. But it’s looking increasingly like we might see film-makers employing the technology to blend virtual characters with real ones.

We got a taste of this recently with a demo app replicating an 80s music video, and now indie game developer Duncan Walker has put somewhat frighteningly realistic robot soldiers onto the streets of London …

Expand
Expanding
Close

The headline isn’t quite fair: Google has actually reinvented Glass as an enterprise product, and I’m sure it will be successful in that field. The application shown in the video – a technician carrying out a wiring task by referring to head-up video displays rather than paper manuals – makes obvious sense. I’m confident there will be many more engineering and business applications that will prove equally successful.

But it also seems clear that Google has abandoned all hope of selling Glass as a consumer product. It wasn’t just that normal people reacted badly to the device (of which more in a moment), it was also that the geeks who so enthusiastically lined-up to buy the Explorer Edition mostly found that the novelty wore off. It wasn’t too long before most devices were gathering dust.

If the rumors are correct, and Apple is indeed planning to launch its own smartglasses, can it succeed in turning the technology into an appealing consumer gadget … ?

Expand
Expanding
Close

Rumors that Apple is working on augmented reality glasses have been growing for some time, and a patent application published today shows how the same approach might be adapted to both a smartphone screen and smart glasses. It also describes how the two devices might be used in tandem.

This embodiment is particularly useful when using a head-mounted display comprising the camera and the screen. For example, the head-mounted display is a video-see-through head-mounted display (HMD). It is typically not possible for the user to touch the head-mounted screen in a manner like a touchscreen. However, the camera that captures an image of the real environment may also be used to detect image positions of the user’s finger in the image. The image positions of the user’s finger could be equivalent to touching points touched by the user’s finger on the touchscreen …

Expand
Expanding
Close

When Michael Patterson and his partner Candice created the animated pencil sketch animations for A-ha’s music video Take on Me back in the 80s, they did all the drawings by hand and it took them 16 weeks, working flat out.

Video game company Trixi Studios has now used Apple’s ARKit to create an app that achieves the same thing in real-time …

Expand
Expanding
Close

Less than two months after the announcement of ARKit with iOS 11 and we’ve seen a plethora of great uses of the tech from developers. From gaming to creative, humorous to utility, there are a lot of use cases. The latest useful example of ARKit shows off how informational augmented reality can improve navigation and Maps.

Expand
Expanding
Close

The Clips app that Apple announced back in March and launched in April doesn’t exactly seem to have set the world on fire.

Apple’s description made it seem simple and fun to use:

Clips is a new app for making fun videos to share with friends, family, and the world. With a few taps you can create and send a video message or tell a quick story with animated text, graphics and emoji, music, and more.

The reviews, however, disagreed …

Expand
Expanding
Close

We’ve been seeing some impressive augmented reality apps of late, but if holding your phone out in front of you feels a bit too artificial, an LA-based startup has an affordable alternative.

The Mira Prism is a $99 headset with a slot for an iPhone 7. Instead of the Google Cardboard approach of having the screen face you, it instead faces the inside of the visor. You then see the augmented elements reflected on the plastic in front of you, and the real world through the glasses …

Expand
Expanding
Close

While I’m generally more of a hard-SF fan, I’m not above a little lighthearted fun where sci-fi is concerned – so I can enjoy a good Star Trek episode as much as the next person. And there are a couple of Star Trek toys I think most of us would like to see: replicators and holodecks.

Replicators as the kind of ultimate Amazon Prime, putting anything you might want into your hands instantly. Holodecks as a way to experience any sights and activities you could ever wish, without even having to leave the building.

But while VR might be the first stepping stone toward holodecks, I think it’s augmented reality rather than virtual reality that will be where the action – and the money – is …

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple may have purchased an eye tracking technology company called SensoMotoric Instruments, MacRumors believes. The report is based on legal activity discovered through a shell company and Apple attorney Gene Levoff.

Expand
Expanding
Close