So let's take a look at a term that Apple
has been using a lot recently in their marketing.
The term is Augmented Reality.
Very often this is abbreviated simply AR.
But what is augmented reality?
How is it related to virtual reality?
What do you use it for?
What equipment do you need to use augmented
reality?
Basically, this is a technology right now
that's primarily on the iPhone and also on
the iPad.
It combines three different elements.
The first element is the camera.
This is why it's something that you really
need to use on your iPhone or iPad.
You need to actually hold the device in front
of you.
The camera is recording what's in front and
just showing it on your screen.
The same way you go to take a picture you're
actually using your screen as a view finder.
So you look at the screen and the camera looks
at the world beyond so you're kind of looking
through, like you would look through binoculars
or a telescope or something.
But you're looking through your iPhone looking
at the screen which is showing you what's
on the camera on the other side.
Now the reason it does this is that it can
add something to it.
Augment the reality that you're seeing.
What it's adding to it is going to be, usually,
3D graphics.
So it's putting a 3D object in the scene.
So you may be looking say at a table but it's
actually putting a 3D object, say a chessboard,
on the table.
It's not really there when you look at the
table with your eyes but when you look through
the iPhone's camera you will actually see
the object there on it could be like text.
It could be labels.
For instance augmented reality might be looking
down the street and a label appears in front
of each building to tell you what's in them
or what the address is or something like that.
But there's a third element to it.
It's not just static.
It's actually live.
So there's motion detection here.
The idea is as you move your iPhone, and thus
the camera and the viewpoint that you're looking
at, the objects will react to that.
So it's not just taking a static image of
a table and putting a chessboard on it.
It's actually taking this live image of the
table and as you move the camera around the
object seems to remain in the same place.
Here is something that's going to be an iOS
12.
It's in the public beta now.
It's a measurement app.
It comes with the iPhone.
Basically it shows you what you see through
the camera and then it allows you to measure
things.
It actually locks onto things.
So here it's measuring my white board in my
office.
This is a very simple application of augmented
reality.
Apple has a great page that shows you all
sorts of videos and examples of things with
augmented reality.
So you can look through it and you can see
some of the examples here.
Notice how it's using all three of these objects.
It's using the camera.
It's using 3D items that are being placed
into this reality to augment it.
It's using the motion of the iPhone so the
objects seem to stay in the same place even
if your viewpoint is changing slightly.
If you want to see more of these examples
just go to the page that Apple's got.
It's apple.com/ios/augmented-reality.
You can go and look at the examples that they've
got there.
Now with iOS 11 there's already a bunch of
different apps that you can search for of
augmented reality in the App Store.
There are a few free ones to try out.
A lot of little games, little utilities.
Things like that.
This stuff is going to become more and more
common, I think, especially if Apple keeps
pushing it like this.
There could be some really interesting uses.
Imagine, also, joint augmented reality.
This is going to be something in iOS 12 where
you'll actually have two people looking through
two different iOS devices but seeing the same
object like say a chessboard or a billiard
table in the same location and being able
to play a game or interact with virtual objects
at the same time through their connected devices.
