Recently, Apple has announced their new, upcoming version of their mobile OS, iOS 11. In the announcement, Apple mentioned a new framework to be added in the new OS, called ARKit, which enhances the experience of augmented reality in Apple’s mobile devices. But that’s all they’ve told us so far. With the release of this new update only being a month away, users are eager to know in what manner ARKit will be used for in the new mobile OS. And it seems like some clever programmers have figured it out: Augmented Reality Maps.
Felix Lapalme had been digging around the beta version of iOS 11, and dwelled deeper to find some mysterious assets in the Maps app package, one of them being a 3D arrow.
https://t.co/2IdpVBS2aQ, on the latest iOS 11 beta, ships with this beautiful and transparent “guidanceArrowV4” sceneKit scene which… pic.twitter.com/AaaZ2JbowG
— Felix Lapalme (@lap_felix) July 22, 2017
Source: Twitter, Felix Lapalme
At first, we thought it might be just some turn by turn direction pointer on top of the map like in most navigation maps today. However, as Lapalme dug even deeper, he found code that basically tells you to tilt your phone in front of your face when the user is using walking directions.
And that’s not all, more code suggests that the maps app will require the use of the phone’s camera.
The only conclusion? The iOS 11 will use ARKit to provide an augmented reality “City Tour Guide” for your maps app, providing real-time, turn by turn directions to your destination.
Hmmm now all the code related to this seems to be gone but the 3D arrow asset is still there ???? https://t.co/yiHfCBc3al
— Felix Lapalme (@lap_felix) August 14, 2017
Source: Twitter, Felix Lapalme
And it makes sense: Apple had announced earlier that they plan to add “more detailed maps of airports and malls in iOS 11.” So maybe the augmented reality map thing will start with those, and soon expand into more locations, until eventually, the AR map can lead you to anywhere you please.
Recent tweets suggest that the developer of this feature is none other than Andrew Hart, who’s been playing around with the frameworks, and has even given us a sample video of what the AR city tour guide would be like:
ARKit + CoreLocation, part 2 pic.twitter.com/AyQiFyzlj3
— Andrew Hart (@AndrewProjDent) July 21, 2017
Source: Twitter, Andrew Hart
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