Augmented reality do it yourself

Apple is betting on augmented reality. “It’s the future,” CEO Tim Cook said at the annual global developer conference. The Worldwide developer conference is the stage from which Apple traditionally unveils the direction that apple hardware and software will take in the following months, and this year was no exception. Among the three novelties announced, greater interoperability between apps and systems, and the evolution of FaceTime into a multiplatform system also open to Android and via browser. According to analysts, this year’s WWDC is “the quiet before a storm of innovations”, and it doesn’t take much to realize it. If the announcements of the keynote launch were somehow already expected, among the links of the subsequent events there are the most interesting ideas. The fulcrum, augmented reality, with new tools and technologies designed for developers, which hint (and even hope for) the launch of dedicated hardware. Unconfirmed or denied rumors, which would put Apple in the wake of Facebook, Snap and Microsoft, already launched in the AR world. As often happens, Apple, before bringing a new technology to the market, wants to give its followers good reasons to use it. Announcements to developers are a first step to create anticipation and put the community to work on new software that can speak to the needs of the general public.During the week of meetings, Apple unveiled its new tools for creating 3D models using the integrated camera capturing objects, movements and posture, as well as a new surround sound system. Object Capture technology is certainly the most disruptive novelty: it is not an app, but a feature integrated into the camera that will allow you to photograph different angles of an object to transform it into its 3D projection immediately usable within a software, making the capture of three-dimensional models much easier and without the need for dedicated and expensive equipment. Object Capture is just one of the tools that improve the existing RealityKit, the package of tools available to developers to create augmented reality experiences. Among the novelties, new rendering tools, functions to organize images and objects or to insert avatars in recreated scenes. Also see new ARKit, which arrives in its fifth version with functions that connect it to real locations. In an example video, Apple showed how to superimpose instructions on Apple Maps, a function that, again, suggests applications for augmented reality wearable devices – for example, glasses that show us street names, distances to travel and as we walk. direction to take. Another tool that can find applications in this field is Apple Vision, which is based on artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify faces (we see it for example when iPhone allows us to organize our photos according to the framed subject). able to identify objects within images, search for certain details in photos, find and “read” framed texts. In one of the sessions, Apple also showed how to use these tools to recognize hand movements – another step towards developing augmented reality software that uses gesture commands.