80 Level Research: Augmented Reality – Present Tools for Business Use

As an example, here’s the exhaustive list of technologies/tools used by MOJOMOTO in the AR development:

All SDKs and Al Models are compiled and integrated with PC, Android, and iOS Development Environments:

AR has become very accessible to users due to AI implementation. In order for Augmented Reality to work, your phone has to be able to measure the depth of the picture. Most modern smartphones don’t have an actual depth sensor, they measure it with cameras and neural networks-based software. So, with the right software, even single-camera smartphones can “do the thing” and therefore be compatible with AR apps.

The AR content can also be triggered by something. For example, Niantic’s Lightship VPS for Web enables the creation of location-based AR experiences where the virtual content is anchored to real-world locations. When the user goes to that location, they can access  specific AR content right from the browser. Once the camera is open, the computer vision identifies the marker, triggers, and puts augmented reality on top of that marker.

Fly in the ointment

Current AR technologies and apps have serious hardware-related constraints. Even though modern smartphones have pretty great and capable processors that evolve every year, they aren’t supercomputers. Their technical capacities cannot provide stable, high-quality AR visualization with in-real-time rendering. 

It also prohibits artists from creating virtual augmented objects that actually look realistic. To achieve realism design has to be detailed and heavily textured, which requires usage of a lot of polygons, which increases the size of the file. None of that goes well with AR. There are both polygons and file size limitations.