Apple has made it clear the company will continue to focus on augmented reality. While they are not planning to release an augmented reality headset, things are different on the software side. ARKit, an application powering AR experiences, recently received a big update. It includes multi-user AR software, which was hinted at by the technology giant last week.
Apple’s ARKit 2.0 Update
Late last week, Apple hinted at a new development in the augmented reality industry. The technology giant claimed they have come up with a way to introduce device-to-device AR functionality. It now seems that is completely true, as the company’s WWDC announcement confirms this is indeed possible. This new functionality is part of the company’s ARKit update, which mainly focuses on multi-person AR software.
This is a new feature which no other manufacturer can offer as of right now. Multi-user AR allows multiple users to see the same virtual object on their device. Up until now, it was only possible to access such technology by effectively having multiple people use the same device. That is no longer a requirement, which further confirms the industry is growing quite rapidly.
What better way to demonstrate this new technology than by using a game to do so. Apple unveiled the SwiftShot game to showcase the potential of its multi-user AR capabilities. Even though there is nothing on the table in front of the users, they both see the same objects which can be hit with a slingshot. Once someone destroys a portion of the bricks, the other user will see the exact same through their device.
While this demo only highlights the tip of the surface of ARkit 2’s functionality, it has a lot of people excited regardless. With competitive games like SwiftShot already being made available, the augmented reality industry can only grow from here on out. With collaboration in AR now becoming possible, a lot of new use cases wait to be unlocked.
Header image courtesy of Shutterstock
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