Deploying Augmented Reality Apps Using ARkit and ARCore

9 March, 2020

With the projected global market size of AR being $198 billion by 2025, there is a lot of hype created around the world. Where top industries or the SMBs are looking for SDKs to build augmented reality apps, the top giants are busy building these, to stay ahead of their competitors.

In this ‘who is doing what’ scenario, the two big names, Google and Apple have come up with their AR development kit, namely ARkit and ARCore. Where the former is owned by Apple, the latter is a Google product. Even though they are designed to map different needs, as ARkit for iOS apps and ARCore for Android, the main aim remains the same, develop augmented reality apps.

Both of these apps have a series of tools that can be used by the developers to build realistic augmented reality apps. One of the most fascinating aspects of ARkit App Development or ARCore App Development is that they are rich in motion tracking ability. Both of the platforms use visual-inertial odometry or the VIO technology that extracts data from motion sensors and further locates the object using the device’s camera. This ensures that the object is placed accurately and further, adds flexibility within the developed apps for enhanced user experience.

However, this is just a sneak peek, the feature list of ARkit and ARCoreextends beyond imagination.

As stated above, the duo has a lot more to offer than just motion tracking:

Plane Detection

We are well versed in the idea that augmented reality places a virtual object in real-time. But this doesn’t mean that they can place it anywhere. It is important that the app differentiates between the vertical plane and the horizontal plane to effectively guard the appearance of the visual object. Thankfully, both ARkit and ARCore excel in this.

Lighting Estimation

Next is the estimation of the light. To have an authentic AR experience, it is preferred that the virtual object has the same light dynamics as it is in real-time. ARkit and ARCore use lighting estimation to assess the brightness of the surroundings and then, render images in a way that seems realistic.

Apart from the above, 2D and 3D object integration is supported by both the development frameworks. They further use anchors to hold on to the AR content and provide support for smart glasses. All in all, they are among the top AR Development Framework.