AI-Based Tools Or SDKs For Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the foundation of almost all the technological developments we are seeing around us. Without a doubt, gadgets are becoming smarter with the help of machine learning and deep learning algorithms. In some instances, AI is even capable of things that humans could never have thought of; creating a whole new world on virtual realms. Particularly augmented reality and virtual reality have transformed fields like gaming, designing, etc. by creating this realm that can be merged with reality.

Augmented reality (AR) became popular after Niantic released its acclaimed game Pokémon GO. Quite obviously, the mobile game fetched virtual pokemon on the real streets of this world. AR use cases extend up to E-commerce websites, where customers can virtually try out the products. Besides this, the filters used in photography are also an application that uses AR. Whereas Virtual reality (VR) has not yet made its way into common people’s lives. But it is quite famous as a concept, which popularized in movies like Ready Player One, Jumanji, and Johnny Mnemonic. Apart from this, some movies have used 360 VR in the production; the audience can experience the movie as if they are a part of it with appropriate gadgets. There is a lot of ongoing development for using VR in architecture, civil, healthcare, and product engineering.

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For all such use cases, companies, as well as individuals, use tools/software development kits (SDK) for various platforms. Developing an AR/VR application with the help of AI would level up your company or product in the market. Tool kits are available for mobile platforms like iOS, Android, Windows, and PC platforms like Windows, Linux, Mac OS. There are freemium models of these SDKs, i.e you can have the tool for free but to access the full package you have to subscribe to the paid membership. Following are some well-known tools, used by both game developers and AR/VR companies.

Wikitude

Wikitude is an Austrian mobile AR technology provider that started in 2008. You may even develop prototypes with the SDK. The kit provides features like geolocation, image recognition, 3D tracking, cloud recognition, video overlay, multiple object tracking, integration with external plugins, and a lot more. The Wikitude toolkit supports mobiles, tablets, and smart glasses such as HoloLens and Vuzix.

ARToolKit

ARToolKit is an open-source SDK in C++, available on GitHub. It is available for these platforms – iOS, Mac OS Android, Windows, and Linux. It offers users a variety of complex features such as GPS integration, Unity3D and OpenSceneGraph Support, 2D recognition, multiple languages, element mapping with OpenGL, and smart glasses support.

Vuphoria

Vuphoria is one of the most popular SDKs for developing augmented reality applications. It uses advanced computer vision technology to recognize and track objects and English texts in a plane. The tool kit also offers localized occlusion detection with virtual buttons. The 3D tracking uses a base of simple 3D structures as targets. Vuphoria’s development portal also frequently holds competitions for developers and enthusiasts.

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Unity 3D

There would be no VR and gaming enthusiast who hasn’t heard this big name. Both professionals and beginners can use this VR development tool. Unity has a worldwide community of game developers, which just helps in quickening the process of quality enhancement. They have appropriate AI tools for mobile games, consoles, and AR/VR games. Unity 3D supports many platforms and external plugin software. The features that they offer include 3D visuals, realistic images and videos, develop virtual spaces of architecture, design and engineer vehicles, etc. Apart from common operating systems, Unity 3D supports Head Mounted Display (HMD) devices, including Oculus Rift, Steam VR/Vive, Play station VR, Gear VR, Microsoft HoloLens, and Google’s Daydream View. The paid version is used mostly in console game development.

Unreal Engine 4

Unreal Engine 4 is famous for its graphics and realistic visuals in virtual reality. They frequently update their hardware and software for a better experience. They also have physically based rendering (PBR) and an advanced post-production rendering. The SDK supports HMDs such as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Samsung Gear VR, Google VR, and Leap Motion, etc. It can be run on Windows PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Mac OS X, iOS, Android, AR, VR, Linux, HTML5.

Apart from these Providers, Google, Amazon, and Apple have their own tools for developing AR and VR applications. The tools released by Google such as GoogleARCore and SketchUp not only support android and windows but also iOS. Apple ARKit is available on all the iOS software versions after iOS 11.

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