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I'm stunned how well ARKit runs on standard iPhone hardware with no special AR sensors whatsoever (unless they snuck in some lasers a couple years ago and didn't tell us!). It tracks incredibly well.

If the iPhone 8 rumors that it will come with laser 3D trackers are true, imagine what AR on that phone will be like!
 
With an accuracy of 2/8" at 48" you're better off using a traditional tape measure or a $70 laser with 1/16" accuracy (4x better) and even higher end lasers with 1/25" accuracy (6.25x better).

VR is a superior experience for Minecraft vs the distraction of overlaying a virtual world over the real world but Apple need to upgrade the displays with OLED and higher resolution to upgrade from lower class AR to higher class VR.

https://minecraft.net/en-us/vr/
 
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OMG my mind is officially blown. These might be simple apps knocked together with a weeks work but the potential is staggering.

And this is on an iPhone!

Bring the future on.
 
Pleasantly surprised at how optimistic and positive the comments are in here. We all know that Google has been doing stuff like this for a few years now, but where are all of their developers and hundreds of amazing videos of their work like this? I'm getting chills from the potential of this. I think the app store will be hit with so many (good and bad) AR apps once iOS 11 is released that it will reshape the categories and what we think of an app store in the future.
 
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I'd rather just use a tape measure.
this is game changing for architects. It takes a ton of time to accurately measure a room and draw up the current floor plan. this demo is using the current iPhone w/o the 3d cameras. imaging walking into a room - taking a picture of it and instantly having every surface measured and drawn out. I'm sure the autocad people are jumping up and down.
 
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I suspect this won't be precise enough on current hardware, but with the depth sensors on iPhone 8 it should be fantastic. The question is, will it be good enough that you'd trust it 100%? Even just a little doubt would be enough to make me go get the real tape measure, I think.
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And one step closer to the Star Trek Holodeck. I'm ready!
Nah, that's VR.

Foolish Apple. Tim Cook should be fired. This is not innovation. Apple should be making cheap desktop PCs. Now that's innovation!

/s
Well, to be fair, and cool as this is, it's not innovation is it? Other people have been doing this for ages.
 
This puts a lot of pressure on the individual App developers to ensure the reliability and reasonable accuracy of Apps like the one showcased above since we are eventually going to rely on these measurements once the novelty wears off and we get used to the convenience and utility of it.

Well, not really. ARKit does the measurements for you. That's kind of the whole point — this was all possible before, but ARKit makes it a lot easier.
 
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With an accuracy of 2/8" at 48" you're better off using a traditional tape measure or a $70 laser with 1/16" accuracy (4x better) and even higher end lasers with 1/25" accuracy (6.25x better).

VR is a superior experience for Minecraft vs the distraction of overlaying a virtual world over the real world but Apple need to upgrade the displays with OLED and higher resolution to go from lower class AR to higher class VR.


Agreed.

AR is functional for many different things, most of which are not involving gaming. Obviously, AR can be used for gaming, as was seen with Pokemon GO, but I'm not sure how much else AR can offer to the gaming world beyond "real world" mini-games.

The elaborate demos I've seen involving AR and gaming look gimmicky, at best. Everyone was blown away by the AR demo at the keynote, but no one seemed to notice the person playing the demo was walking around a room with an iPad. Who's really going to do that? I, for one, am not going to use my iPad as my game camera and walk around the room. It's a gimmick and it's going no where for that type of gaming. Is it a cool demo to show off technology, sure. Practical? No.

Virtual Reality is in its infancy and requires another generational leap forward to fully realize the "dream". Games like Minecraft were made for VR. On a side note, I wish developers would make standard games, with standard controls that are VR "ready". A 3D version of "The Last of Us" is possi

Apple seems more interested in AR and it's clear to see why. VR, at the moment, is appealing to geeks and gamers. It has widespread appeal....but only us nerds are the ones ponying up the money to go buy one. Once there are more mainstream experiencing available for VR, and done elegantly, I could see Apple getting into the VR landscape. For now AR is the easy sell, as it requires no new hardware, can be utilized to create new types of apps, and can provide a new way to use our phones when we're out in the world. It's easy to see why Tim Cook think AR is going to be bigger than VR. My theory, however, is that VR will have a larger impact in the long run than AR...but it will take a lot of new tech, money, and determination to get to that goal. Apple wants action now.
 
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Nah, that's VR.

Agreed, mostly.

AR uses an existing environment and adds features. VR also uses an existing environment, but essentially eliminates all the existing features; the environment only serves for the space.

So, yeah, I'd agree the holodeck is closer to VR than AR. This is essentially what VR looks like when you have the headset on but aren't running the software:

Holodeck2.jpg


There's nothing useful in that room for an augmented or mixed reality.
 
AR is really damn cool. I've had the opportunity to see Microsoft's HoloLens in practice and able to see some of the unique and amazing things it brings.

But HoloLens is still too far out of the reach of everyday users. It's been now 2 years since Microsoft Demoed it live and have only managed to have a limited run of Developer kits released.

The fact Apple has managed to get an API out, in their phones and ready to be used, might not re-invent AR, but it at least is going to make it accessible to developers who can come up with their own solutions.

Going to be interesting if Apple believes AR should be phone only, or if they're going to make an attempt to somehow integrate AR into some form of wearable glasses, or tied into the Watch in some way.

AR developers, it's in your court now! lets see what you can deliver!
 
Amazing. Nothing short of it.
Smart move of Apple just opening it up to developers and letting them do their thing.

Since they bought NeXT in 1997 and Jobs came in, they always have been like that.

We, programmers, have excellent Apple API’s, they make the best ones in industry, that’s why WWDC is WWDC.

The problem is when a client comes in and wants his App to be “for Android and iOS and Blackberry”, and we need to make it work for the lowest common denominator.

I.e. can’t have ARKit on android.
 
Since they bought NeXT in 1997 and Jobs came in, they always have been like that.

We, programmers, have excellent Apple API’s, they make the best ones in industry, that’s why WWDC is WWDC.

The problem is when a client comes in and wants his App to be “for Android and iOS and Blackberry”, and we need to make it work for the lowest common denominator.

I.e. can’t have ARKit on android.

No, they really don't.

They make some decent API's for things that they choose to let you have. But where's your NFC API on the iPhone? Where's their DirectX competitors on MacOS?

Apple does do some of their API's really well (As the AR one shows), but they have a bad habit of picking and choosing what developers have access to.
 
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