As part of Apple’s flurry of announcements today, the company unveiled new augmented reality features for its new iPhone devices and showed off the technology integrated with MLB’s At Bat app.
The brief demo showed how a user at a baseball game can point an iPhone at the live action and see player stats on the screen above the actual players. New technology packed into the iPhone camera helps make it all happen.
¡La app de realidad aumentada para la @MLB se ve impresionante ! #AppleEvent pic.twitter.com/jTkRA0Mwuk
— El Monitor MX (@SomosElMonitor) September 12, 2017
.@MLB‘s At Bat #AR app on @Apple devices is a key example of AR’s best uses: real-world info overlays while you’re watching live events
— Stephanie Llamas (@StephiNaners) September 12, 2017
For the Harry Potter fans, the feature works much like Omnioculars. “Apparently intended for viewing Quidditch matches, they will provide the user with a play-by-play breakdown if desired, showing the names of the manoeuvres performed by players caught within their perspective through the Omnioculars,” notes Harry Potter Wiki.
He quickly moved past it, but Phil Schiller just showed off real-live Omnioculars when at MLB baseball games!! #harrypotter #apple
— Micah CowsikHerstand (@micahherstand) September 12, 2017
Apple announced three new iPhone devices today: the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X. New hardware design, specifically minimal bezels, is a key design element for augmented reality apps, allowing the phone to overlay the real world with 3D objects and other digital artifacts. Apple is focusing on augmented reality with its ARKit developer tool and built-in augmented reality features in iOS 11.
At Bat is MLB’s official app and lets fans stream live games, among other features. In August it became the first sports streaming app to eclipse two billion minutes consumed in a single month.
