What I Learned Making ARKit Prototypes | Hacker News Reader

What I Learned Making ARKit Prototypes

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89 pointswallflower13 comments

The graffiti demo he made is very impressive.

Using various photos of the same place, he makes a time scrubber that shows the older art that was on a wall.

Link: https://twitter.com/nathangitter/status/1020733723183124480?...

Basically - useful AR hardware isn't here yet but what we do have allows us to play around and test ideas.

I'm interested in using VR in a similar way. i.e. build a copy of a real space in VR, ensure the alignment is correct and make sure any moveable objects are trackable. It's a hassle but once you've done this you've essentially got a prototype of what it will be like in future when AR glasses have a decent field of view, work in full lighting and allow you to subtract as well as add light to the scene.

I think this is more fun that the other options:

1. Hold a phone or tablet in front of you and imagine what it will be like when I can do that without holding a lump of metal and glass.

2. Squint through a Hololens or Magic Leap and try and ignore the current hardware limitations.

However - in either case it's all a dry run for some future hardware platform that we don't have yet.

It's all leading to AR glasses worn by everyone, seeing a shared AR world superimposed on meatspace.

Kinda predicted by a neat anime called Dennou Coil [0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennō_Coil

I think its going to be selectively shared, with much unshared. The results for human interaction will be very annoying. The next time you see someone at the airport playing a game on their phone with the volume maxed, imagine them dancing around and waving their hands in the air. That will be AR.

I wouldn't mind passing by a park and seeing kids playing with AR Pokémon in 3D space.

Most of it will be implicitly-shared by corporations/government in the form of AR ads/aids etc. much like today.

> It's all leading to AR glasses worn by everyone...

This just won't happen.

I'd be happy to eat my hat in 10 years if it does, but I don't think I'll have to worry about that.

I mean that's what some people said about smartphones almost 10 years ago, ironically, and now even homeless people have them.

I don’t have to wear a smartphone on my face.

Also, people gave similar dismissals about the Apple Watch.

Again, that's not on my face.

FWIW, I spent nearly 6 years homeless. About a year after giving up my car, I threw out my glasses. I have no plans to ever wear glasses again.

He and I may be the only two not wearing them, but he won't be alone. If you want to claim "Close enough" I'm going to say you are moving the goal posts and using imprecise language.

Whoever makes that shared world, that’s the next Facebook.

That's a clever idea I haven't heard before. VR to simulate advanced-AR tech. It sounds like it's worth pursuing.

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