Making new realities
2017 brought the tantalising possibilities of augmented reality onto mainstream devices. Makers are getting to grips with the raw ingredients of new realities, and businesses are slowly realising the potential of the new medium. Moving World’s Jed Carter asks, when AR connects physical and virtual worlds, what can we build in this exciting ‘in-between’?
For the AR-curious, #ARKit and #ARCore were the hashtags to follow last year. Development platforms from Apple and Google finally gave creators a solid foundation on which to build complex AR experiences: new sensors gave devices a way to understand where and how they are oriented in the world; better processing power allowed devices to understand the size and position of real surfaces — and gave them a way to blend virtual objects on to them.
Who’s got the audience?
Crucially, both ARKit and ARCore give creators a relatively simple route to publish their experiences to Apple and Google’s respective app stores — establishing both businesses as leaders in the market almost overnight. Inevitably, other businesses are competing for attention.
blippAR, for example, offers a development kit that works on Apple and Google devices and allows creators to publish to blippAR’s own marketplace. Apps can integrate the platform’s homegrown computer vision APIs, giving creators a simple way to add features like facial and object recognition to their apps.
Likewise, Facebook’s AR Studio and Snapchat’s Lens Studio both promise to help businesses place simple virtual content into the world — think Star Wars-themed selfie filters and moveable cartoon rainbows. These experiences may be simple, but Snapchat and Facebook already have the attention of a huge user base, and their potential to dominate the fledgling AR market shouldn’t be dismissed.
Shared virtual experiences
Snapchat’s partnership with Jeff Koons, bringing the artist’s inflated sculptures virtually to popular global locations, is a sign of things to come. A key opportunity for brands will be to use AR to create shared digital experiences in a single physical space. Imagine harnessing the fervour of Pokemon Go fans flocking to capture a Vaporeon in New York’s Central Park, to draw audiences to a product launch or retail opening.
AR gives new meaning to a ‘pop-up’ experience, enabling organisations to create events that appear and disappear with virtual ease. How will brands tie digital experiences to physical locations? — and more importantly, how will consumers react? Already, AR graffiti has emerged as a means of virtual protest at the idea of digitally commercialising the physical world.
2017 highlights
Throughout last year, social media feeds saw a flurry of sketches, experiments and thinking that began to explore what ‘augmented reality’ can be. It was exciting to see creators get to grips with the raw ingredients of AR:
Studio Dia’s experiments give kinetic energy to typography, exploring type-driven graphic design that spans streets or flows down stairs.
Zach Lieberman’s daily iterations with ARKit show the playful side of the medium, exploring optical illusions and drawing, among other themes.
NormanAR by James Paterson and Google Creative Lab takes animations drawn by hand in virtual reality and lets users place them in the world.
A handful of standout experiences showed the potential of augmented reality in business, entertainment and education.
IKEA’s Place app shows us how AR can connect physical retail and e-commerce, combining the choice of online shopping with the peace of mind that comes with seeing a potential purchase in situ. The app allows users to place virtual furniture from IKEA’s catalogue into their own homes.
Euclidean Lands shows us how AR can suggest new game mechanics, bringing the importance of space and spatial awareness into digital play.
Nose Zone proves that an innovative AR experience doesn’t have to be complex. The app’s success comes from the simple comic joy of controlling a game with your face.
What’s next?
2018 promises many more developments. Our eyes are on Niantic (maker of 2016’s Pokemon GO) which plans to release Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, a mobile game aiming to bring J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world to life. If the hysteria surrounding Pokemon GO was anything to go by, Niantic’s next game could make a similarly global impact.
For those that are tired of peering at their smartphones, AR headsets are slowly filtering into the real world, although their hefty price tags mainly restrict these products to business-focused tasks. Microsoft’s $3000 HoloLens, for example, has found success in 39 countries, used by businesses such as Ford and Thyssenkrupp.
Rumours of Apple’s interest in developing AR hardware are widespread, and although it’s unlikely we’ll see anything soon, the looming inevitability of an Apple AR product may create a sense of urgency in the market that was previously lacking. Excitingly, Magic Leap is due to launch its long-awaited headset this year. With partnerships including the likes of digital comic platform Madefire, we’re keen to see Magic Leap’s take on augmented reality storytelling.
