Facebook and Snapchat both launch new augmented reality television camera effects this calendar week in a bid to become the most - used app on your smartphone . But what if your phone had AR baked into its core ? Rumor has it that Apple ’s tenth anniversary iPhone will includedual - lense cameras on both the front and backwith augment reality features , and Apple CEO Tim Cook has beenbullish on ARin a passel ofstatementsover the last class .
Apple would certainly be late to the party . Google put augmented reality in glasses four years ago ( to much ridicule ) , and Snapchat long ago figured out that AR effects like selfie filter are hook enough to keep masses come back . To keep Facebook at true laurel , Snapchat just roll out3D lensesthat overlay animated cartoon objects on top of your genuine - world images . Not to be outdone , Facebook is release its in - app television camera into a platform for developer to create their own augment reality effect .
But Facebook and Snapchat are n’t fully in control of their augmented reality experiences . They still bank on other caller ’ smartphone hardware . If Apple put augmented world in the iPhone 8 ’s cameras , the society would own the full batch : hardware brawny enough to put AR experiences in the palm of your hired man without sting through your battery and the computer software musical accompaniment to entice developer into creating those experience .
Apple is n’t concerned about being first to grocery with engineering science . It want to be the salutary . Here ’s how the iPhone 8 could turn augmented world into a must - have hardware feature , no Facebook account need .
Maps
A conceptual rendition from creative person Gabor Balogh shows how a more powerful Siri could use augmented reality to channelise you through building .
Apple has its own mapping data , and Facebook and Snapchat do n’t , so an iOS Maps feature that overlay selective information about nearby buildings on your screen door when you bespeak your camera at them seems like a innate augmented reality consequence .
Apple was of late deed over a patent for a two - lens system rear - present camera system with built - in target identification , depth mapping , and a diversity of other features that make it possible to overlie entropy on top of indoor and outdoor environment . This would change by reversal the Maps app ( or perhaps a new Apple app ) into a virtual tour pathfinder .
Imagine take the air down the street as a holidaymaker in a extraneous city and using your iPhone photographic camera to find out what historically important building or piece of artistic production you ’re face at and why it ’s meaningful . Travel can be overwhelming — augment realism would make it easier .
Chat
An representative shows Facebook ’s augmented reality tv camera build overlays .
Apple was recentlygranted a patentfor a three - dimensional scanner that would head to advanced facial credit capabilities . That applied science would make it potential for Apple to authenticate your personal identity using your face instead of your fingerprint , but it could also have AR implications . The most obvious is Snapchat - like selfie lens that you could apply in iMessage or stream via FaceTime . My 3 - year - old niece would love it if I video recording - chatted with her in full Snapchat puppy lens of the eye mood .
Photography
harmonize toBloomberg , one of the AR - adjacent consumption cases Apple is nifty on is photo redaction . Apple has march a version of this with the iPhone 7 Plus Portrait mode , which habituate a combining of software system and hardware to isolate the national of a photo and blur the background .
But you have to shoot in Portrait mode to achieve that effect . Apple is work on features that would tolerate you to blue-pencil those effects in afterward , such as changing a photo ’s depth or rearranging objective .
Gaming
Pokémon Go started an augmented realness play trend .
The success of Pokémon Go prove that augmented reality makes gaming more habit-forming . Inseveralinterviewsto tolerate the launch of the Facebook camera political platform , Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg discussed the potential for developers to practice the camera to add objects where none existed , like a game of chess on top of an empty table .
If the iPhone ’s camera supported augmented world , everyiOS game developer could take vantage of its 3D scanner and astuteness sensing to cover virtual games on top of everyday lifespan . What if all iOS games were as immersive as Pokémon Go ?
If the iPhone 8 ’s front - facing photographic camera also supports augmented reality , as it is rumored to , plot creator could put you immediately inside the plot with a lookalike avatar .
Apple benefits if there are great apps you’re able to use on your iPhone , because then you ’ll always desire to utilise it alternatively of another gimmick . If Apple puts augmented reality in its camera , that does n’t harm Facebook or Snapchat . Instead , it create both apps well .
The bonus to have augmented reality at the OS level is that anyone can partake in AR experiences without ever having to open up Facebook or Snapchat , which is a cock-a-hoop marketing power point for the social media - averse .
