Understanding Augmented Reality and ARKit
You may have heard of virtual reality (VR), but there’s a similar innovation that’s appearing on mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad that’s called augmented reality (AR). Although they may rely on similar technology, virtual reality and augmented real
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Understanding Augmented Reality and ARKit You may have heard of virtual reality (VR), but there’s a similar innovation that’s appearing on mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad that’s called augmented reality (AR). Although they may rely on similar technology, virtual reality and augmented reality offer vastly different uses in everyday life. Virtual reality works by forcing users to strap a device around their head like an alien facehugger. Such VR headsets completely isolate the user from his or her surroundings and immerses the user in a completely fictional world. NASA uses virtual reality to train astronauts to explore the surface of Mars, while American football teams are experimenting with virtual reality to train quarterbacks to re-experience plays without actually going out on a field and risking physical injury. By practicing skills in a virtual reality world, users can safely make mistakes and learn from them without any physical consequences. The huge drawback with virtual reality is that to use it, you must be in a safe place such as in a home or office. Because VR headsets isolate you from your surroundings, using virtual reality essentially blindfolds you. You can’t use virtual reality while driving, walking, or operating a © Wallace Wang 2018 W. Wang, Beginning ARKit for iPhone and iPad, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-4102-8_1
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vehicle of any kind. Because you need to wear a VR headset, you can only use virtual reality wherever you can safely stand or sit without worrying about interference from outside elements such as other people or moving vehicles. For that reason, virtual reality’s uses are limited to fixed locations where users can remain safe while they immerse themselves in another world. On the other hand, augmented reality is designed to interact with the world around you. Augmented reality lets you view the real world but with additional information overlaid over reality to help you better understand what you’re looking at. For example, a measuring cup is a simple version of augmented reality. By pouring liquid in a transparent cup with measurement units printed on the outside, you can accurately measure the amount of any liquid in the cup, as shown in Figure 1-1. Without the measurement units printed on the outside of the transparent cup, you would never know exactly how much liquid the cup contains.
Figure 1-1. A measuring cup is a simple version of augmented reality Hunters use a similar type of augmented reality when aiming a rifle. The scope magnifies the view of whatever the hunter may be looking at, and crosshairs etched in the lens shows the hunter exactly where the rifle’s bullet will hit, as shown in Figure 1-2.
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Figure 1-2. A hunting scope is another form of static augmented reality Both the measuring cup and rifle scope represent simple, but fixed, types of augmented reality. A measuring cup can only measure amounts of liquids poured into that cup and a
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