Dave here. I love ARKit, love the endless possibilities it brings. In today’s episode, watch this ARKit user select some new furniture, plop it in place, angle it just so, and even resize it for the space.
I can see a future where this is how you try/buy your furniture, and how you order custom-sized pieces for an exact fit.
It’s already clear ARKit is going to be huge. As with the first few apps in the app store, this is barely a hint of what’s to come. Tim Cook has obviously seen the potential here for a long time and kudos to Apple for what looks like an outstanding early implementation of AR.
The only way in which this excites me is if it could be used for people instead of furniture. Like if I could dial up a friend in Tokyo, and have them appear as an avatar in my current surroundings. This seems really unlikely though for a whole host of reasons.
I’m still waiting for a non-game related, non advertising related, NEW use for this technology. IKEA (and others) have had the furniture thing for a long while. Ditto the “virtual object appears on desktop,” thing. Ditto “mapping” an object and turning it into a 3D mesh. All of these things have worked for years and have had apps in the app store long before ARkit, but none are that useful or have garnered any sales beyond small niche markets.
ARkit improves accuracy, and makes incorporation of the tech easy-peasy but it’s nothing new, and would appear to have very limited applications.