Mike Wuerthele
Augmented reality developer team Thyng has released version 4.0 of its creation software, allowing users to cover any surface on an iPhone or iPad's screen with their own video and video content.
No development tools or content import is required to use the app. Content to be applied in Augmented Reality is selected from Photo albums or stored videos.
Content examples suggested by Thyng are family photos on the coffee table in conjunction with some "3D snacks." Other possibilities cited by the company include virtual TV sets that float in the air and play family videos.
Thyng 4.0 supports surface-based display such as the family photo example, and target-based augmented reality. Target-based AR examples are a recipe playing on a product box after scanning the packaging, or a 3D version of the product mascot popping up on the package.
The Thyng update, version 4.0 is available on the iOS App store, requires iOS 11 or later, and starts at 46.7MB of device storage space. An Android version implementing ARCore is not yet available, and in progress.
Wesley Hilliard
Malcolm Owen
Christine McKee
Andrew Orr
William Gallagher
5 Comments
What's the point of this?
I can use this app on my own iPad/iPhone so that I can look "through" my iPad/iPhone at, for example, a wall and see an image or video that I selected? WTF would I want to do that?
Or is this a product that third parties can use to create their own AR apps that other people could install?
I don’t get a lot of these AR apps. You’re not looking at your photos on the coffee table. You’re looking at a screen with an image of your coffee table with photos on top. Talk to me when the photos actually appear on the coffee table!
None of the uses for AR cited in this article are remotely interesting or useful. They seem desperate and silly.
The more I see the apps using ARKit, the more I believe that the future of AR is a regular-looking pair of glasses that sync with your phone to function as the display, with the phone providing all the AR horsepower and rendering. I don't think anyone wants to hold a phone up to look through instead of just being able to look and move around naturally.