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Apple's augmented reality developer framework, known as ARKit, launched within iOS 11 on September 19. The debut turned hundreds of millions of iPhones into advanced AR-capable devices in the span of a few days, leading to the first wave of ARKit apps on the iOS App Store.One of these apps is called 'Pixie,' which existed prior to ARKit with its own proprietary AR technology, but the company updated its main app and 'Pixie Point' trackers with Apple's technology last month. I've been testing Pixie's new ARKit-enabled tracking devices for about a week, and so far the app's augmented reality solution to finding lost items has provided a fun and engaging experience for item rediscovery, when it works.Unfortunately, my experience with Pixie was too often plagued by a low-quality app guidance system and inconsistent success in its main function, making the whole package feel like a beta product for a better iteration down the line.Like other Bluetooth trackers, you attach Pixie Points onto items you might lose frequently, or simply fear losing in the future. For Pixie's tracking technology to work reliably, one of the Points has to be attached to your iPhone via an included silicone-like case. The Pixie Point sits embedded in the top right of the case's back, and this coupled with the slippery feel of the case made me more conscious of how I was holding my iPhone and how close it was to falling from my hand at times. You could also use the Point's adhesive backing to stick it directly to your iPhone, but for obvious reasons I preferred not do that.

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Ahead of next week's Worldwide Developers Conference, Loup Ventures analyst Gene Munster today shared his predictions for the features and services that Apple will unveil during the event.Munster expects Apple to debut new Siri, AR, AI, and Digital Health functionality, including a Beats-branded accessory (presumably a speaker) that includes Siri integration, much like the HomePod. When Apple first announced its ARKit developer platform, one of the examples it gave was an image that showed someone playing Dejarik, a holographic board game from the Star Wars universe. The game has been available in an augmented reality experience on the iOS 'Star Wars: Jedi Challenges' app Direct Link, but it required pieces of hardware - namely the Lenovo Mirage AR headset - that currently costs $149.99.This week Disney updated the Jedi Challenges app with ARKit support, removing the requirement of a Lenovo Mirage AR headset and letting anyone with an iPhone or iPad running iOS 11 play Dejarik Holochess for free (via Gizmodo UK). ARKit users are able to access the full Holochess game mode, with 18 levels taking place across six planets and including eight unlockable creatures with unique abilities.

Lenovo says that Holochess mode includes around two to three hours of gameplay.Star Wars: Jedi Challenges adds ARKit compatibility with this update. Users with an Apple device running iOS 11 can now experience the magic of augmented reality directly from their mobile device.

Access the full Holochess game mode from Star Wars: Jedi Challenges including 18 levels across 6 planets and 8 unlockable creatures with unique special abilities. Last month, Sensor Tower reported that iPhone and iPad owners worldwide have downloaded more than 13 million ARKit-only apps since the platform launched in September 2017.

Games remain the dominant category for ARKit-only apps - defined as 'expressly using' Apple's framework, unlike Jedi Challenges - having grown from. Since ARKit debuted within iOS 11 on September 19 last year, iPhone and iPad owners worldwide have downloaded and installed more than 13 million ARKit-only apps. The data comes from Sensor Tower, which broke down the most popular categories of augmented reality apps fueled by ARKit, the top 10 free and paid apps, highest grossing apps, and more.Games remain the dominant category for ARKit-only apps - or those apps built 'expressly using' Apple's framework - having grown from representing 35 percent of downloads one month after iOS 11's launch, to 47 percent today. The second place category, Utilities, decreased from 19 percent last October to 15 percent in March. Rounding out the top six were Entertainment, Lifestyle, Photo & Video, and Education.Charts via Sensor Tower Sensor Tower pointed out that for the games-specific charts, the top spots of all three sections (free, paid, grossing) were 'still occupied by many of the same titles that found success several months ago,' suggesting not much variation in ARKit-only gaming on the App Store. On the other hand, when the researchers looked at non-game apps they saw multiple newcomers rising on the charts, like LEGO AR Studio - 'a testament to the popularity of kid-focused AR content on the App Store thus far.'

From what we’ve seen in our latest analysis, ARKit-only apps only continue to grow in terms of installs and the number of experiences available to users. This isn’t including the numerous ARKit-compatible apps that have added some degree of AR functionality in the past six months and have pushed the. Apple will be hosting a session at this year's Game Developers Conference for the first time, offering an introduction to ARKit, its augmented reality platform for developers.The session will be presented by Michael Kuhn, who leads Apple's ARKit engineering team.Entitled 'Introduction to Apple's ARKit: Best practices and recent updates,' the talk will cover core concepts of the ARKit framework and the ARKit API. It's designed to teach game developers how to get started with ARKit, and it will cover ARKit best practices.This session introduces core concepts of the ARKit framework, it's underlying principles, and the ARKit API. It explains how to get started with ARKit using the different tracking and scene understanding capabilities as well integration into rendering/game engines. The session also highlights best practices for AR like starting an experience, placing objects in the real world, interacting with them and implications for games.

In addition it explains basic concepts and challenges of AR and Computer Vision to help avoid common pitfalls and allow the creation of great experiences.Apple has not previously offered developer sessions at GDC, but this is the first GDC since the launch of ARKit and Apple is likely hoping to get more game developers interested in implementing augmented reality features.ARKit was introduced as part of iOS 11 back in September of 2017, and since then, developers have incorporated augmented reality features into more than 2,000 apps. Major improvements are coming to ARKit with the launch of iOS 11.3 and ARKit 1.5, which. The iOS 11.3 update, seeded to developers and public beta testers last week, introduces ARKit 1.5, an upgraded version of the set of tools developers can use to create augmented reality apps for the iPhone and the iPad.As it turns out, ARKit 1.5 can do a lot of neat things. It can map irregularly shaped surfaces for better detection of your surroundings, and it can also recognize and map vertical surfaces like walls and doors, so you can use AR to place and detect items on walls.Over the course of the last week, developers have been testing out ARKit 1.5 and sharing short demo videos on Twitter, providing a look at just what will be possible with augmented reality apps when iOS 11.3 is available.Vertical surface detection, for example, is shown off in the video below.

A realistic-looking tunnel is projected on a wall, and while this doesn't have any immediate usage implications, it's a useful demo of how ARKit sees walls in iOS 11.3. So I've been playing with the new ARKit wall detection today.what do you think?#arkit #madewitharkit #augmentedreality #iOS113 #arkit15 #ar #AugmentedReality pic.twitter.com/J9tj6sJf9S— Ubicolor™ (@ubicolorapps) January 25, 2018 An example of how vertical plane detection can be used in augmented reality games is demonstrated in the video below, where creatures projected into open space take advantage of the area around them. Made a weird #GGJ18 game Creature-z this weekend with @tristandamron, @marknerys and @ericklind using #ARkit verticalPlane detection. Big up to @PIGSquad for hosting pic.twitter.com/BKRdhVKHvq—. Apple today previewed iOS 11.3, its next major iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch software update.

The first beta has been seeded to developers today, with a public beta coming soon, ahead of an official release this spring.iOS 11.3 introduces new Animoji on the iPhone X, including a lion, bear, dragon, and skull. There will now be 16 characters to choose from in total, including existing ones like a pig, fox, chicken, pile of poo, and robot.iOS 11.3 will feature ARKit 1.5. In addition to horizontal surfaces like tables and chairs, Apple's updated augmented reality platform will now be able to recognize and place virtual objects on vertical surfaces like walls and doors, and more accurately map irregularly shaped surfaces like circular tables.ARKit 1.5 can find and recognize the position of 2D images such as signs, posters, and artwork, and integrate these real-world images into augmented reality experiences, such as bringing a movie poster to life. In addition, the view of the 'real world' will now be in 1080p HD, up from 720p currently.The software update will introduce Business Chat, a new way for users to communicate directly with businesses within the Messages app. This feature will launch in beta following the public release of iOS 11.3 this spring, with support from select businesses, including Discover, Hilton, Lowe's, and Wells Fargo.With Business Chat, it's easy to have a conversation with a service representative, schedule an appointment or make purchases using Apple Pay in the Messages app.

Business Chat doesn’t share the user’s contact. Apple's ARKit augmented reality framework has seen only modest adoption from developers since it was announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference, while growth has seen a steady decline since its official launch, according to App Store data gathered by Apptopia.ARKit enables iPhones and iPads running iOS 11 to superimpose computer-generated graphics over the real world, allowing developers to take their apps beyond the screen and into the user's environment. By using the built-in camera, processors, and motion sensors found in iOS devices, virtual content appears on top of real-world scenes, and users don't need any special equipment to enjoy them because ARKit does the heavy lifting.

But despite initial excitement over the technology and a general consensus that Apple has improved upon existing AR solutions like Google Tango by making ARKit simpler to use, take-up by iOS developers saw a steady decline in the second half of 2017.In ARKit's launch month of September, developers released approximately 300 ARKit-related apps, while October saw an additional 200 or so enter the App Store, according to third-party data provider Apptopia. However, in November the number of ARKit-based apps fell to about 156, before recovering somewhat to around 160 in December. Overall, ARKit is said to have been used in about 825 of the over 3 million apps in the App Store since its debut.As it stands, Apptopia reckons 30 percent of ARKit-using iOS apps fall into the games category, 13.2 percent are entertainment, and 7.5 percent are photo and video apps. Apple is developing 3D depth sensing technology for the rear-facing cameras in its 2019 iPhones, according to a new report by Bloomberg on Tuesday. The 3D sensor system will be different to the one found in the iPhone X's front-facing camera, and is said to be the next big step in turning the smartphone into a leading augmented reality device.Apple is evaluating a different technology from the one it currently uses in the TrueDepth sensor system on the front of the iPhone X, the people said. The existing system relies on a structured-light technique that projects a pattern of 30,000 laser dots onto a user's face and measures the distortion to generate an accurate 3D image for authentication. The planned rear-facing sensor would instead use a time-of-flight approach that calculates the time it takes for a laser to bounce off surrounding objects to create a three-dimensional picture of the environment.The existing TrueDepth camera would continue to be used in the front-facing camera of future iPhones in order to power Face ID, while the new system would bring the more advanced 'time-of-flight' 3D sensing capability to the rear camera, according to the sources cited.

Discussions with manufacturers are reportedly already underway, and include Infineon, Sony, STMicroelectronics, and Panasonic. Testing is said to be still in the early stages, and could end up not being used in the phones at all.With the release of iOS 11, Apple introduced the ARKit software framework that allows iPhone developers to build augmented reality experiences into their apps. The addition of a.

Stranger Things: The Game received a feature update on Friday, coinciding with the hit TV series' season two debut on Netflix. Version 1.0.252 of the free retro-style sci-fi adventure game brings a new playable character to the Arcade and a brand new Hawkins High School dungeon.

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Elsewhere, there are new quests to be gained from the Florist and the Hawk Theater Attendant, while players have another opportunity to get a 100 percent score thanks to a slew of new collectibles. In the words of the game's official blurb:Things are stranger than ever in the town of Hawkins. Mike and the gang have new neighbors. Visit the Arcade to meet the new kid. Explore the Upside Down Gates that have opened around town. Solve the all-new throwback adventure in Hawkins High School.Continuing the Stranger Things 2 theme, Snapchat today launched a new World Lens portal that takes users into an Upside Down version of Joyce Bryers' living room through an augmented reality doorway.The room features several nods to the first season of Stranger Things, including fairy lights, alphabet graffiti, and a gaping hole in the living room wall.

Interactive easter eggs and surprises scattered around the AR environment can also be discovered by tapping on objects. To open the Upside Down lens in Snapchat, activate rear camera mode, tap the screen, and select the first sponsored effect in the list at the bottom of the interface. The lens can also be unlocked using Shazam in the Snapchat app when the Stranger Things them tune plays.Two additional Stranger Things lenses are set to debut later. Apps that use the ARKit framework Apple introduced in iOS 11 have been installed 3 million times around the world since September 19, according to new data shared today by analytics firm Sensor Tower (via TechCrunch).Many of the ARKit-only apps that are available are games, accounting for 35 percent of ARKit apps worldwide. ARKit-only apps include those that are built entirely around the new ARKit technology, rather than apps that have added some ARKit features.Utilities are the second most popular ARKit category, accounting for 19 percent of apps, while 11 percent of ARKit apps are in the Entertainment category and 7 percent are in the Education category.Many of the top ARKit-only apps are games, with four games among the top five highest-grossing ARKit apps. Titles like AR Dragon, Zombie Gunship Revenant, The Machines, and Monster Park - Dino World have proven to be the most popular AR games with consumers.Games have accounted for a total of 53 percent of all ARKit-only app downloads and 62 percent of ARKit app revenue since the launch of ARKit.With games taken out of the top app listings, apps that allow users to measure 3D spaces or demo furniture are some of the top performers. Among free apps, IKEA Place, the furniture app from IKEA that lets consumers see products in their homes before purchasing, is one of the more popular apps.Sensor Tower's data covers only apps that are primarily focused on the augmented reality experience and it did not take into account apps that offer limited ARKit content like photo modes or mini games.When.

Apple CEO Tim Cook believes there isn't any sector or industry that will be untouched by augmented reality going forward.Tim Cook via Alastair Nicol for Vogue In a recent interview with Vogue, Cook said he believes the technology will transform everything from fashion runway shows to shopping.' If you think about a runway show in the fashion world, that's a great application of AR because some of these, you want to see the dress all the way around, you do not want to just see the front.' That kind of experience is all the more important now that runway shows are catering to a wider consumer audience watching online, and not just those seated in the front rows, he added.Apple's chief envisions a world where customers will essentially be able to 'point and buy' products. If your friend is wearing a pair of shoes you like, for example, you could point your iPhone at them, and a shopping app could instantly bring up information about the pair with the option to purchase them online.' We don't have a plan to collect all of these objects, but I know companies who are working on that for their products,' Cook said. 'If you think about companies that offer a fair number of shoes, and if a customer sees a shoe and goes I want that one, you just want to point and buy. That will be a part of the shopping experience of the future, it absolutely will.'

Cook is so confident in augmented reality's future that he believes the technology will become 'as key as having a website' for brands.Some retailers have already implemented augmented reality features using Apple's new ARKit. With the launch of iOS 11 today, Apple has turned hundreds of millions of iPhones into augmented reality-capable devices thanks to the support of a new developer framework called ARKit. With this technology, iOS developers can more easily craft AR experiences for users on compatible iPhones and iPads, using each device's built-in cameras, processors, and motion sensors.As of now, the first wave of these apps are available for you to download and test on the iOS 11 App Store.

The first apps range from game updates to practical everyday tools and even apps that encourage a healthier lifestyle, with more refined experiences likely coming in the future once developers get a grasp on what users enjoy with the first wave of apps. Note that to use ARKit-enabled apps on iOS 11 you must have an iOS device with an A9, A10, or A11 processor. This means ARKit apps can be launched on iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and the upcoming iPhone X. For iPads, you can use the 9.7-inch iPad or the 10.5-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro. The older 9.7-inch model of the iPad Pro is compatible as well.One you have iOS 11 installed on one of these devices, head over to the new App Store and check out some of the ARKit apps listed below to see how Apple's new augmented reality technology works in your own home.Games Splitter Critters (left) and Egg, Inc.

(right) Splitter Critters ($2.99)- What's it about? Use swipes of your finger to split a colorful landscape and guide alien critters back to their spaceship, avoiding enemies. ARKit demos have been popular over the summer, showcasing the features that iOS 11 users will gain on their iPhones once the new software update rolls out worldwide later in September. Today we've rounded up some of the latest tech demos of the software development kit, which you can check out below.In the first ARKit demo, augmented reality and user experience designer Jelmer Verhoog has created an app that lets users design and customize a Tesla Model 3 car. This extends to the wheels, paint, and interior of the vehicle, and even includes driving controls.

While Verhoog's demo is focused on the Model 3, it's easy to imagine other carmakers using Apple's ARKit to help customers when they're on the hunt for a new vehicle. The next demo, by Zach Lieberman, shows off an interesting use of augmented reality and ARKit - it allows users to record audio through the app, which is then visually represented by waveforms in an AR space. To play back the audio, users can physically move through it, with the ability to listen to the recorded audio both forwards and backwards. Check out the video below with audio to see Lieberman's demo in action.

🌠 @zachlieberman is now on Alpha Centauri with his #ARKit/#openframeworks experiments. Turn on your audio for this 🌌pic.twitter.com/Uj5Ig9DyJb— ARKit Weekly (@ARKitweekly) September 6, 2017 An app called 'Neon' was showcased recently, and it allows friends to find one another in the midst of overcrowded festivals. The app's Twitter page says it'll be out 'this fall,' and it appears to use its own social network to add close. Apple today updated its developer site with new sample code for ARKit, providing developers with additional details on what can be done with the upcoming feature.According to Apple, the new code is available alongside new ARKit 'best practices' published in the Human Interface Guidelines. Apple also asks developers working on an 'amazing' ARKit experience to share it with the company.Design intuitive augmented reality experiences for iOS using the best practices now available in the Human Interface Guidelines, and explore new sample code for ARKit. We can't wait for your apps to be available to hundreds of millions of people with the launch of iOS 11 this fall. Apple this week invited several media sites to its Cupertino campus to show off some upcoming ARKit apps being developed by major companies like The Food Network, Ikea, Giphy, and AMC, according to CNBC, The Verge, and TechCrunch.Ikea demonstrated its previously announced 'Ikea Place' app, designed to allow users to preview what Ikea furniture will look like in their homes ahead of a purchase.

The Verge says it's highly customizable, letting users see the size, materials, and texture of furniture.The Food Network is developing an app that will let users create custom digital desserts that can then be reproduced in real life through a custom recipe, while AMC and Next Games have teamed up for an augmented reality zombie game called 'The Walking Dead: Our World.' Image from CNBC GIF app Giphy plans to introduce tools that will let GIFs be added to the real world, and Climax Studios CEO and developer Simon Gardner showed off an upcoming AR game called Arise, which is an augmented reality puzzle game solved by tilting the iPhone to steer a character through the level.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar, a popular children's story turned into an app, will take advantage of ARKit to offer kids a chance to raise a virtual caterpillar, feeding it until it turns into a butterfly. Image from Apple, via The Verge All of the developers present had the same general opinion about ARKit according to The Verge - it 'could be the real game changer in AR.' Many of the developers said it was simple to create an ARKit app, sometimes taking just 7 to 10 weeks to develop. Apple's iOS 11 update is just weeks away, and as the launch date approaches, developers have been experimenting with ARKit, the set of augmented reality tools Apple built into the operating system.We already know ARKit will work with a huge range of apps, from games to utilities to shopping, and the latest demos below give us an even better picture of what our iPhones and iPads will be capable of once ARKit-based apps are available to the public.In the first video, a company named Kabaq demonstrates virtual food on a plate, which is how future food ordering apps might take advantage of ARKit. Using Apple's feature, restaurants will be able to give customers a 3D look at what different dishes look like.

In a second video, ARKit is used for painting and sculpting, with developer Fabin Rasheed demoing a sculpture using the Apple Pencil on the iPad Pro. His app, MakerStudio, is designed to allow users to create 3D objects and then paint them, all using augmented reality. A third video for an upcoming game called ARZombi shows off how ARKit might be used in an ultra realistic augmented reality game. In the demo, virtual zombies are shown invading a person's living room using ARKit. An ARKit world creation game was also shown off earlier this month, further demonstrating the kind of games that will be made possible with Apple's augmented reality tools. In the game, players control a tabletop world populated with villagers.

Finally, an upcoming virtual pet game that's currently on Kickstarter gives us a peek at what could be a super popular ARKit app. Ahead of the launch of iOS 11, developers have been busy experimenting with ARKit, Apple's upcoming augmented reality platform, to see how it could be used in various everyday scenarios and contexts.The latest demo to catch the eye comes courtesy of ModiFace (via 9to5Mac), which specializes in creating augmented reality apps for the beauty industry. The company recently uploaded a video showcasing a lipstick previewer and virtual 'beauty gallery' in a cosmetics store.The video demonstrates a person looking into the front-facing camera of their iPhone and trying out various shades of lipstick, minus the faff of having to actually apply it, enabling the user to quickly choose their preferred color.Later in the video, the woman browses a virtual aisle of images of herself with various cosmetics digitally applied, making her selection a much simpler process than the traditional hassle of physical application. ModiFace envisions further uses for ARKit in the cosmetic space, some of which it demonstrated in a second video that showcases a 'virtual beauty counter'.' Users start with trying on different beauty products on their own video through ModiFace's iOS app. From there, once a selection of products have been made, they can then instantly see their products, product reviews, and product simulations on their own photo rendered as a virtual beauty counter.

Users can walk close to the counter to zoom and view specific product visualizations or features. For example, to see the details of a lipstick, they simple walk closer to their photo and move their.