Apple Air labels are the perfect boring and functional future of AR

Most iPhone owners have already used AR on the Apple handset, even though they didn’t realize it. One of the most useful AR tools built into the iPhone is the simplest, virtual tape in the Measure app – useful when you want to realize how wide your new bed is or what size you need to hang that photo on the wall. And five years ago at Niantic Labs Pokemon Go it has become a sensation of viral AR, with millions of people experiencing the physical world through their phone screens while hunting down virtual game characters.

AirTags can be personalized with messages or emoji.

Apple

The difference with AR games like Pokemon Go, Says Wetzstein, is still primarily based on the phone’s Wi-Fi and GPS radio to determine the location, sensors that can not provide location information almost as accurate as ultra-wideband technology. Something cheap and energy-efficient like the AirTag, says Wetzstein, seems like the “perfect choice” for activating applications that depend on more precise tracking.

Jessica Brillhart, who runs the mixed reality lab at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies, points out that location tags could also be a way to share two-way information about objects in a space. Attach one of these labels to an object, give it a name, and “the system can learn on a scale what constitutes a refrigerator, what constitutes a bridge, what constitutes a tree,” says Brillhart. “So it’s an access point, but it works in tandem, feeding information to the system and helping people contextualize the world.”

It is noteworthy that Apple did not identify this as a specific use case for AirTags, but it cannot be ignored that, once there is a network of location-aware devices, this network could provide the knowledge needed to unlock more powerful applications. .

“The biggest hurdle in RA is knowing really what you’re looking at or where you’re at, but these AirTags can contribute to that understanding,” says Brillhart.

Apple has not yet responded to requests for comment on this story. Of course, Apple’s AR ambitions probably don’t end with AirTags, the Measure app and brilliant games. It appears that the company is working on AR glasses – just like Facebook, Snap and others – although more recent reports suggest that Apple’s first head-up display may be more of a niche device than a consumer-friendly product.

But even if those Apple AR glasses arrive and become a success, and even if more AR games prefer Pokemon Go appear to steal the hearts of children and adults, iPhone owners will continue to experience AR in other more mundane but ultimately more useful ways. Whether they use their iPhone to measure a home office closet or follow the arrows on the screen to find their AirTagged backpack before they go to school, they are connected to Apple’s vision of augmented reality. No need for glasses.

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