Apple To Integrate AR Into iPhone Camera
There have been many reports this week that Apple is combining their iPhone’s camera app with Augmented Reality technology. (For example, on Business Insider).
Apple wants the addition of AR into the iPhone’s camera software to enable consumers to point their phones at a real-world object and have the iPhone recognize it. Another potential feature to be implemented with the use of AR within the camera app could be recognition and manipulation of people’s faces; in the most recent version of its iOS software, Apple incorporated facial recognition technology into the photos app.
Employees from Metaio and Flyby Media, AR technology companies acquired by Apple over recent years, are working in Apple’s camera group. When the Augmented Reality features are built into the iPhone camera app, the technology will be released by Apple as an SDK for app developers; the same way the Touch ID fingerprint sensor was released.
According to sources, Apple is working on a pair of smart glasses in order to pair them to an iPhone, and have employed John Border, previously Chief Engineer at Osterhout Design Group. The Business Insider article claims that Border is potentially moving Apple’s smart glasses project out of the exploration labs and into a more advanced stage.