What’s up with Augmented Reality?
A simple guide as to what is augmented reality for your everyday person.
Like most things in life, augmented reality falls into a spectrum. On the one end, we have actual-reality, which involves what you are experiencing right now. On the other end, we have virtual reality, which involves a fully immersive simulated environment. Augmented reality is supposed to provide you with the perfect balance between the experience of actual-reality, while granting access to the tools supported by virtual reality.
Augmented reality enhances your perspective of life by utilising technology. By overlaying digital information onto our world, augmented reality has the potential to completely re-design the way we think about our day-to-day transactions.
S.L.A.M. (Simultaneous localization and mapping)
I will be focusing on the most practical of methods to create an immersive AR experience, SLAM.
Simultaneous Localization And Mapping utilises the built-in detection features on your phone to 1) Map out the structure of your space, and 2) Create and locate the sensors in your environment
Sensors are objects in an environment which can be used as a reference point for the relative distance and angle between the phone and an object. In employing these two strategies, a phone can identify surfaces and planes at which an AR object could be placed.
Once these reference points have been established, the phone is capable of overlaying digital information such as your news feed, notifications, or conversations into what you perceive to be reality.
Who is adopting AR?
AR is plentiful in applications today and is predicted to become even more so in the future. Some major players using AR at the center of their products are SnapChat and Pokemon Go.
SnapChat is an extremely popular medium for communication, especially amongst teenagers. SnapChat revolutionised AR software, becoming one of the world’s first mainstream social media platforms employing AR. Using recognition software, one of the three main methods for constructing AR, SnapChat enhances selfies with their “face filters”. Filters are a fun way of sending messages to others. Every filter manipulates your face in a unique way. From editing your facial features, to enabling you to wield virtual rainbows, SnapChat has it all. The feedback is overwhelmingly positive, another indicator that the world loves AR!
PokemonGo on the other hand, uses SLAM to project their “pokemon” (fictional animal-like characters) onto the real world. By analyzing environments, and identifying surfaces, PokemonGo places their creations anywhere that you desire, and they are completely interactive. The application hit number 1 in less than a week and is still one of the most popular games on the market.
Further readings
I sincerely thank you for reading my article and hope that you gained something from it. If you are interested in creating your own AR experiences, I would highly recommend that you follow this course on mobile AR development. Cheers.
