ARKit hasn’t produced any apps that are absolutely must-haves, but that could soon change with iOS 11.3.
Apple has added some new ARKit features in the updates slated for release this spring. iOS developer Andrew Hart has already created a demo that utilizes the image recognition tools to identify books on a store shelf while providing reviews and ratings from the internet.
Prepare to be amazed:
A little demo of what’s possible with Image Recognition in ARKit, coming in iOS 11.3 pic.twitter.com/0IVDPkCWi8
— Andrew Hart (@AndrewHartAR) January 31, 2018
All of the image recognition occurs on the device, according to Hart. That might sound like it would take up a lot of data or require you to download a ton of book images, but each image only contains less than 0.5kb of data. So for 1MB you can compare 2000 books.
Other apps like Amazon’s already have a similar feature, but the fact that any developer can access this type of software practically for free should be a huge gamechanger for all sorts of apps.
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
