Animated avatar grooves alongside human in cool new ARKit demo

By

AR
Tim Cook is hella excited about AR. We can't disagree with him!
Photo: Normal VR

Another day, another great showcase of Apple’s new ARKit augmented reality platform, as created by ingenious independent developers.

This time round, the work is by New York developer Normal VR. Devs at Normal used Apple’s augmented reality tech and graphics engine Unity to craft a cool demo showing a cartoon avatar matching the movements of a human user. Check it out below.

The demo additionally incorporates an HTC Vive headset and controllers, which act as input devices for controlling the avatar. The results demonstrate not just another cool VR use-case, but also a demonstration of how augmented reality and virtual reality technologies can work side by side.

Scream-worthily good

Since it debuted ARKit at WWDC, Apple has praised developers’ enthusiastic response to the new platform as “unbelievable.” Some of the applications we’ve seen so far include utility apps such as tape measures that actually work and an awesome AR map, which could be used by Airbnb to show guests around accommodation.

Applications like the above avatar one are less useful and more whimsical, but it’s not hard to see how the technology could be adapted for a variety of requirements.

“I am so excited about it, I just want to yell out and scream,” Tim Cook has said about augmented reality — and the more that we see, the more we’re inclined to agree with him.

At present, Apple reportedly has hundreds of engineers working on a standalone AR headset. While we’re probably a couple of years away from that, demonstrations like the above are a good reminder of what is going to be possible simply using an iPhone and iPad, alongside one or two other bits of already-existing tech.

Are you excited about AR? Leave your comments below.

Source: MadeWithARKit

Via: MacRumors

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