Lego Makes AR instantly Accessible

After a demo at WWDC earlier this year, LEGO launched the LEGO AR Playgrounds app for iPhone and iPad.

The app uses ARKit to put digital LEGO characters into real-world environments and to interact with physical LEGO sets. It is a great way to introduce AR. A kid playing with the LEGO app can select various physical characters such as Ninjago Dragon Hunters and then interact with pre-selected sets in augmented reality. The two sets currently available that work well with AR include the LEGO Ninjago Dieselnaut (70654) and the Lego Ninjago Dragon's Pit (70655).

ARKit enables multiple users so two people can play using the same playground. Two players can team up to battle against Dragon Hunters and figure out their attacks and how to win.

"Children today are mastering the art of finding new moments and forms of play and LEGO Playgrounds will provide a 'live' opportunity to test and learn directly with them. It's truly a unique way to engage with them in a fun and experimental way and bring them close to our innovation process. Having this direct-link to users creates a win for everybody – sharing the latest play experiences is great fun for children and highly useful for our LEGO design and development teams who can take their feedback and use it to make launch experiences even better and more engaging."

Augmented reality demo from Lego, Tech Crunch interview with Lego’s director of innovation, Martin Sanders about how they're building AR into the company strategy.

You can play up to five levels without a physical set. You will just nee a flat surface to play on. The app is free to use and free of ads, marketing messages and in-app purchases. To use the AR features, you will need at least an iPhone 6s with the latest iOS version. More information is available at Lego.

Amazon Adopts AR Kit in its latest iOS Shopping App Just Before Black Friday

With Virtual Product Previews, Amazon's shopping app gives customers the ability to see how products look inside their home using AR technology.

Amazon employs Apple's AR Kit in its latest iOS app to let you view thousands of products in your home, before you buy them. Just in time for the start of the holiday season, the updated app uses augmented reality (AR) kit technology to help customers make better shopping decisions based on aesthetics and fit within their existing living spaces.

After opening the app, you click on the camera icon and choose AR view. Then you can select from thousands of items for your living room, bedroom, kitchen and home office. This ranges from electronics to kitchen appliances, home decor, toys, furniture and more. A nice feature of the app is the ability to move items around and get a full 360-degree view, which can help you finalize your purchase decisions so that you are choosing the best products for your personal aesthetics. Using the new app's AR Kit technology (version 9.21.2) requires iOS 11 and is compatible with the iPhone 6S or newer models.

AR Kit offers tremendous opportunities for showcasing products and building spaces and environments. This ability to recognize objects and showcase them virtually in context, is helpful in a variety of industries, ranging from retail to architecture and construction, landscaping, aviation and the automotive industry.

AR Kit can determine surfaces that any object is placed on and track the movement of the camera in relationship to its surroundings, using the rear camera feed and Core Motion data. In addition, AR Kit can also figure out the right lighting for virtual objects placed into a scene.

WWDC: Some of our Favorite Updates & Announcements - Part 1

At WWDC earlier this month, Apple shared so many exciting updates. Here's a look at some of our favorites.

1. Launch of the new 10.5 inch iPad Pro

Building upon its bestselling and beloved product, the iPad, Apple announced a new 10.5 inch iPad Pro to replace the prior 9.7 inch model. The new sizing allows you to have a full on-screen keyboard. The new ProMotion display technology at a refresh rate of 120Hz offers easier, smoother scrolling with swift responses. Animation and movement are more seamless, making the new iPad Pro models (both 10.5 and 12.9) able to display HDR video for the first time.

For folks like us who like to draw and tweak things on screen, you'll also like the lowered 20ms latency of the Apple Pencil for a more natural drawing experience. We also love the bigger color range available with a brighter 600-night display with True Tone for outdoor lighting, and also the two cameras available (12 Megapixels rear-facing and 7 Megapixels front-facing) first introduced with the iPhone 7. The new iPad Pro is designed with iOS 11 in mind.

2. AR Kit Offers Immersive App Experiences

Apple introduced the new AR Kit where we can build augmented reality apps for the iPhone. This means we can track motion, estimate scale, plan out ambient lighting and even locate objects (like a plane for instance). AR Kit builds upon the iPhone's existing high quality imaging capabilities and thus do not require additional external hardware like the HoloLens from Microsoft.

AR Kit Demo at WWDC 2017 via WingNut Studio, game development company founded by film director, Peter Jackson

3. iOS 11 Design Changes

The new iOS 11 offers some design changes system-wide, providing an increasingly seamless look with borderless buttons and bolder fonts, while overhauling some interface elements such as the Control Center with customization options and new animations. The Lock Screen and Notification Center are now merged, simplifying access.

New iOS 11 Integrated Notifications & Lock Screen via Apple.com

4. Oldest and Youngest App Developers

There's a lot to love about the new releases and product enhancements that were announced in 2017 WWDC, but one announcement by far, caught our attention immediately - the oldest (80s) and youngest (10 years old) app developers. Amazing, isn't it?

Just goes to show that age is literally no limit - on either end of the spectrum! So maybe you started the first part of your life doing one thing. Who knows? There may be an app developer in you yet!! :)

Youngest (10) and oldest (80s) app developers at WWDC 2017.

5. Xcode's Fast New Refactoring System

In terms of code, one thing that we're excited about is the ease and speed of use in the new refactoring system and source editor available in Xcode 9. This definitely makes things faster for repetitive steps and also better organization.

Image of Ken Orr, senior Xcode manager presenting at WWDC 2017.

We're also excited about the GitHub integration now available through easy cloning with full notes.

This is the first blog post in a series of 3 covering some highlights from WWDC 2017.