Watch: Apple goes all-in on augmented reality
Apple is going all-in on augmented reality with iPhone X, iPhone 8 and iOS 11. From hardware acceleration on the A11 Bionic chip to ARKit in iOS 11, check out all the new AR features consumers coming to Apple's product line starting Sept. 22.
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Comments
Digital measuring tape.
AR will be the final nail in the coffin for shopping malls.
People already buy a lot of stuff online (for example, from Amazon) because it's convenient and often cheaper. This is especially true for things like electronics. However, one item that people still like to see in person is clothing. Usually because they want to try it on to see how it fits/looks. I know some online clothing shops get around this problem by shipping out clothing, letting people try it on at home, and allowing easy returns if it doesn't fit. But that's not very efficient.
When I walk through the largest mall in our city (450 stores) most of the shops are clothing or shoe stores. I think AR will replace these.
You can use AR to create a digital map of your body. You then browse clothes online, and try them on via AR. Not something simple like Snapchat where it pastes an image over a picture of you, but where the clothes are "modeled" on you based on the actual size of your body and stored measurements regarding the particular item you're trying on. I don't know if they could perfect it, but I bet it would be accurate enough that only a small minority would return the items because of fit.
Further, think of image conscious people who don't want to go into a public store to try on clothes. This would empower them by allowing them to try stuff on in the privacy of their own home. Or people like me who just hate going out and trying on clothes (just give me a simple pair of jeans and a tee and I'm happy).
Now go even further. With a digital map of your body, you could order custom tailored clothes without having to go to the tailors. Or some happy middle ground where you're buying pre-made clothes, but getting slight adjustments made to them based on your body (hemming pants would be the simplest of these).
This could also be applied to something like furniture. We already see Apps from companies like Ikea where you can see how a piece of furniture will fit in a room. How about measuring your room and ordering a custom (or semi-custom) piece of furniture instead, that's altered slightly in size to fit perfectly?
As much as I dislike online shops like Amazon helping to cause the shutdown of retail stores, the fact is they are an obsolete business model. However, it's not all bad. Jobs lost to physical retail could be moved into other areas. Instead of thousands of retail employees standing around in clothing stores they might now be used to make custom or semi-custom clothes in localized factories. Instead of people standing around in furniture stores trying to sell you stuff you have tradespeople making furniture to order. Like previous changes brought about by technology, we'll see jobs lost in some sectors with new ones created in others. Hopefully we won't end up with a huge net loss in jobs.
I think the revolution is coming and it will turn ugly for the retail sectors in ways we can't guess now.
Only direct service to users will stay local (like Apple Store). Every standard, just sell stuff for things that are not time critical (like shopping for grocery on a whim at night) will be in for a very tough time.
Personal services will survive, generic services will be swept away.
Going back to a time were the rich can hire many people to serve them in their houses and outside it, while many others cannot even afford the good themselves.
For starters, no 3D objects.
They’re just drawing on a camera screen. Other astronomy apps like Star Walk have done that same technique for years.
It would be helpful to the ARKit effort if Apple would avoid confusing the message like that.
I've mention AroundMe in the past and it (for a time, not sure about anymore) had an AR mode. Augmented Reality apps are not new. Apple's support (and extensive weight behind it) via ARKit is.
(No, I have no financial interest in this app - I just found out about it here!)
Apple will offer OS integration of AR featurs of course and the hardware will make it easier to use AR,