While large portions of the internet get excited about whether the upcoming iPhone has an OLED screen with an embedded fingerprint scanner, wireless charging or how many blades it has – sorry, we mean cameras – developers are mainly excited about one thing: augmented reality.
Read more: If we're living in a simulation, this UK startup probably built it
At Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference in June, the company announced an augmented reality developer API for iOS 11 called ARKit.
Apple's demo was impressive, demonstrating how its software could measure distances, identify surfaces and scale virtual objects correctly to a high degree of accuracy.
The AR segment of the Apple's keynote is one hour, 25 minutes into the keynote video below.
More importantly, ARKit is easy. Developers don't need specialist equipment, all they need is an iPhone and knowledge of Unity or Unreal engine and they're ready to go. And thanks to the Made With ARKit Twitter account, we're beginning to see what developers can do with the new API.
Let's start with the most predictable thing ever: Minecraft. Minecraft, famous for working on almost anything at this stage, was a debut demo for Microsoft's HoloLens headset – no surprise given Microsoft owns it.
That's Minecraft on iPhone in AR, running on Unity. An impressive demo, but not the most interesting. Let's move onto something else. Here's two guys playing basketball.
If you're wondering what the big deal is, watch this next clip.
Those players aren't real. They're an example of volumetric capture, a VR filming technique that lets the viewer control the perspective. It's the difference between moving the camera's perspective, as you do in 360-degree video, and moving around the environment as you do in a virtual reality experience. It's holograms, people. We're talking about holograms.
The video below from volumetric VR startup 8i offers a small flavour of how the technology works.
Volumetric capture is one of the most exciting aspects of augmented reality so far, but that's just the beginning of the fun ideas people have come up with. Here's an inter-dimensional portal.
And one more for good luck.
Given the potential for mishaps, we're not sure how useful inter-dimensional portals will be in future, but some of the potential AR applications are more grounded. This basic concept for an AR restaurant menu is a good example.
Another is this concept for a car configuration tool modelled on the upcoming Tesla Model 3.
Apple's already announced IKEA as a partner, so you can expect it's working on a way to preview furniture in your home. While you're waiting for that, you can watch a Space X Falcon 9 landing in your garden.
As for children's bed time stories, we can think of no better way to scare the bejesus out of them than using AR.
Looking further afield, this concept shows what a guided tour might look like when wearing smartglasses.
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Of course, Microsoft's HoloLens headset included, there are't any practical smartglasses on the market. But if Apple's recent acquisition of a German company that specialises in eye tracking glasses is anything to go by, it's clear Apple has ambitions in that direction.
Google already has history with Google Glass and Facebook, as we wrote earlier this year after its F8 conference, plans to destroy Snapchat, then own reality, though we're sure Snapchat won't go down without a fight.
One way or another, reality is about to get very crowded.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
