All right. 1
So welcome to the ARKit Module. 2
So alongside the CoreML framework, ARKit is the other thing that really, really excited us at the 3
App Brewery 4
during this year's WWDC. And I'm going to talk a little bit about what it is and what you can do with it. 5
And then we're going to get started implementing it in a couple of apps and I'll show you how you can 6
use it in your own project. 7
So what exactly is AR or augmented reality? And I think the best example that people always tend to 8
use is Magic Leaps video 9
where this whale basically jumps out of the gym floor and wows all of the kids. 10
I'm not sure that kids are that easily impressed, but it's a great demo and it shows very basically what 11
AR is. 12
It's a way of putting virtual objects inside the real world and making it appear as if the real and 13
the virtual worlds are merged together, so magically is a huge endeavor and the company has raised about 14
$1.4 billion in investment so far, and yet we still haven't even seen a product yet. 15
So people are investing big in AR and there's good reasons for it. 16
Now, Magic Leap's tag is built to be really revolutionary. 17
It's going to change the world and it's going to be absolutely amazing, 18
but, you know, we're yet to see what exactly it is. We'll decide once we actually put on a headset and 19
see it for ourselves. 20
But augmented reality exists and it's really very, very prevalent in a lot of the apps that you use. 21
So a good example are the 3D stickers that you see in Instagram Stories, also Pokémon GO, of course, 22
one of my favorite games. 23
And finally, of course, Snapchat masks. 24
So there's actually a lot of AR being used already in the apps that we're using and Apple is definitely 25
jumping on this in a big way. 26
And I'm really glad that they are because they are a company that really has the resources and the manpower 27
to be able to make this really, really mainstream, 28
and it really could change the way that we interact with digital technology in the future. 29
So if you have a look at developer.apple.com/arkit, then you see Apple's brand-new page 30
for AR and it explains a little bit about what ARKit is, and it's a great place to get started. 31
So have a read of how ARKit works here and you can look in detail at the documentation over here. 32
And I definitely recommend if you are going to start building your own apps in a ARKit, then this is 33
the first place to start 34
after creating the tutorial apps. 35
So what exactly is ARKit? 36
Well, it's basically just a way of implementing augmented reality in iOS in a simplified way. 37
And since the iOS 11 developer preview, a lot of the developers have already started making really, really 38
cool stuff with iOS 11 and ARKit. 39
So here are some really great examples. 40
So, for example, Tic-Tac-Toe on any sort of ground or surface that you've got or a way of measuring 41
real-world distances by simply using the camera or--this is the coolest one that I've seen so far. 42
There's basically a portal where you can look into another world and even step into another world. 43
And it's absolutely incredible. 44
And I think there's going to be loads more really, really awesome applications, especially once iOS 11 45
comes out of beta and everybody starts making a crazy amount of cool things for ARKit, 46
and maybe some of those really cool things that will be the things that you make. 47
So if you do, please do let me know about it and I would love to give it a spin and also shout about 48
it to the world. 49
So how exactly does ARKit work? 50
Well, it's basically a way of implementing augmented reality. And it's pretty similar to the other frameworks 51
that implement augmented reality. 52
So in one of the modules in this course, we actually teach you about euphoria which is currently one 53
of the most popular frameworks for implementing augmented reality, especially when you're working with 54
Unity. 55
So Apple's ARKit works in a similar way, in the sense that allows you to create and track the correspondence 56
between the real-world space, 3D space, and the virtual space that you create where you can model visual 57
content. And when your app displays that virtual content together with a live camera image, then the user 58
basically experiences what's called augmented reality, right, 59
which is simply just an illusion that your virtual content is a part of the real world. 60
And this brings us to a really, really important point. For your ARKit apps to work with this world tracking, 61
you need to have certain hardware, and more specifically, that hardware is the A9 chip or above, 62
so A9 or A10 chips. 63
So in terms of devices, that basically means anything that was released after the iPhone 6, including 64
the iPhone SE, 6s, 6s Plus, et cetera, and you can read down the list. It doesn't mean that if you have 65
an iPhone 6 that the app won't run. It usually means that it won't have world tracking enabled. 66
What does that mean? 67
So, 68
well, tracking is where your virtual object is placed in 3D space. 69
So if you move towards it with your iPad, it will get bigger. 70
And if you move away, it will get smaller and you can also look all around it. 71
If you didn't have world tracking, then it would still be floating in mid-air, but it just won't correspond 72
to a real 3D space. 73
So if you move around, it will move with you. And I'll demo some of that once we start creating our app. 74
But, basically, to fully take advantage of ARKit and to actually have fun with it, Apple is, obviously, 75
pushing for their latest models. 76
And even when you do have the A9 and A10, you should be aware that running an app where the arcade 77
is pretty battery intensive, especially as I'm creating a lot of these tutorials in iOS11 beta, it 78
sucks up the battery like there's no tomorrow. But I'm sure, in future betas of iOS 11 79
and also wheniOS 11 is officially released, 80
then you won't have as many problems. But I expect that any app running ARKit is going to use up quite 81
a bit of battery. 82
Those are just some things to be aware of. If you don't have one of these devices, then I would recommend 83
just to watch the videos and see if this is something that you're interested in developing. 84
You can still code along and learn the programming and the theory behind it. 85
So at the App Brewery, we're investing pretty heavily in creating teaching resources for ARKit. 86
And the reason is because we think it's going to be huge. 87
A good analogy for this is when the Oculus Rift came out for virtual reality, everybody was really excited, 88
it was really, really impressive the first time that you put on a virtual reality headset, 89
but the hardware was pretty expensive. 90
I really thought that this was going to be a piece of tech that was going to be really, really out of 91
reach. 92
And then, Google came along with their Google Cardboard, 93
I mean, they could have made it with plastic. 94
They could have made it with something relatively cheap, but they decide to go for cardboard, basically, 95
just to stress the fact that, you know, virtual reality isn't anything fancy, and you can use a piece of 96
cardboard and leverage the existing tech in the smartphone that's in your pocket to create a virtual 97
reality experience. 98
And I think for augmented reality, Apple's ARKit is going to do something really similar. 99
So Magic Leap's tech is completely hush-hush. 100
Nobody knows what it'll look like, 101
in fact, it might look something out of a sci-fi movie like helmet or something, or might look more refined. 102
This is actually one of their patent drawings. But who the hell knows? 103
We'll just have to wait and see. 104
But a better comparison is probably with the Microsoft HoloLens. 105
So this is Microsoft's hardware offering for augmented reality. 106
And I mean, it's not horrendously expensive, but it's still extra tech that you're buying at which parts 107
of already exist in your smartphone. 108
So why stuff your house with loads of hardware when you can reuse some of the technology that you already 109
own. 110
So compared with going out there and buying a whole suite of tech in order to experience augmented reality 111
by having it on your phone inside 2- or 3-dollar apps on the App Store is going to make augmented 112
reality, so much more approachable for the masses. 113
And I think will lead to much greater adoption and interest from the public. 114
So I think ARKit is going to be huge. 115
So without further ado, let's start making our own augmented reality apps using ARKit.