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The Worldwide Developers Conference, hosted by Apple, has already started. And, just as many expected, the Cupertino-based tech giant maximized the event to introduce major updates and developments in the pipeline for its own line of software and programs, including the ARKit.
The ARKit is Apple’s very own platform for supporting developers in creating augmented reality-based features on iOS apps and macOS programs. It was first launched in 2017. There is no doubt that AR is one of the emerging technologies with benefits that are not hard to imagine for a wide array of mobile apps.
So at this year’s WWDC, Apple announced the ARKit 2 and confirmed that it has established a partnership with Pixar for expanding services that the next-generation platform can offer.
According to Apple, it is expanding the way it supports apps’ features like detection and tracking of 3D images through the ARKit 2. It appears that the company is aiming to bring more realistic AR results with the ARKit 2, promising that it “adds the ability to automatically apply reflections of the real world onto AR objects.”
With the ARKit 2, Apple is also launching the Measure app on iOS 12. As its name suggests, it allows developers and users to “quickly gauge the size” of actual objects around them through AR technology. Apple promised that just by using a photo of an object, Measure can “automatically” provide accurate dimensions as if using conventional rulers and measuring tapes.
Meanwhile, Apple’s partnership with Pixar allows it to make the use of the “usdz” file format more accessible and easy to share for iOS and macOS users.
“In collaboration with Pixar, Apple is introducing a new open file format, usdz, which is optimized for sharing in apps like Messages, Safari, Mail, Files and News, while retaining powerful graphics and animation features. Using usdz, Quick Look for AR also allows users to place 3D objects into the real world to see how something would work in a space,” Apple said in a news release.
