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New Software Development brings AR/VR into reach for smaller businesses!

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New Software Development brings AR/VR into reach for smaller businesses! Appy Pie is the first drag-and-drop builder to support AR/VR

Software Developers have been busy developing the new Drag-and-drop app builder Appy Pie. They have released virtual and augmented reality features which enable businesses without large budgets to deliver immersive experiences to users.

Last month, the director of developer relations at Salesforce proclaiming it’s time for an “upgrade” for users. In the article, Will Coleman argued the only solution for overburdened enterprise IT teams and software developers is to empower users with the knowledge and tools required to solve problems themselves – leaving software developers to focus on complex tasks.

DIY app building platforms such as Appy Pie help to deliver on Coleman’s vision. Users without specialist development knowledge can now build apps with some features that were once reserved for large enterprises with budgets to afford teams of expert software developers and designers.

“We are proud to announce that we are the first DIY app platform to offer VR and AR features,” said Abhinav Girdhar CEO and Founder of Appy Pie. “SMBs rarely have the resources and budget to integrate the latest and greatest technologies, and often at a disadvantage when competing with larger companies that do. With these new features, we are democratizing VR and AR, allowing small businesses to enhance their customer experience and better stand out from the competition. We’re excited to see the creative ways our millions of users use the new technology.”

Two main VR/AR features will be provided at launch for budding developers to incorporate within their Android and iOS apps – image recognition and tracking, and a panoramic and 360 video viewer.

Image recognition enables the app to identify millions of real-world objects, keep track of their position, and overlay augmented information where appropriate. The panoramic and 360 video viewer allows users to experience real-world locations and products within a virtual environment.

A restaurant owner, for example, could take a panorama of his restaurant on his iPhone and let users explore it no matter where they are in virtual reality. When customers look at the menu in the physical restaurant, images of the food could be recognised and nutrition information augmented to help them make informed decisions.

New technologies such as virtual and augmented reality are making it easier to differentiate from competitors, but the entry cost was high. With their latest update, Appy Pie is leading the way in breaking down barriers preventing creativity and putting advanced features within reach of us all.

What are your thoughts on Appy Pie’s new VR/AR features? Let us know.

Check out some of our latest Software Developer jobs & get involved with the latest technologies and career advancements! 

 

  • Developer Tech

Could there be a boom in VR Arcades?

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Taiwanese electronics manufacturer, HTC, push the concept of VR arcades with new ‘Vive’ software

Viveport Arcade offers arcade operators curated software with a pay-per-use license

One of the biggest issues with high-end virtual reality experiences right now is that they often require people invest thousands of pounds in powerful computers in order to work. One solution to this is the VR arcade, where operators buy machines and then rent time on them to the public.

HTC recently announced a new software platform that aims to help with the creation of such arcades. ‘Viveport Arcade’ is designed to help arcade operators find games that are well-suited to the sort of public experience that they’re building, while also helping developers better monetise their creations. It’s built for the Taiwanese hardware maker’s Vive headset, one of the leading offerings in the realm of high-end virtual reality headgear.

It’s a move by the company to try and democratise access to virtual reality, while also getting a cut of the burgeoning VR arcade business. Rikard Steiber, senior vice president of Virtual Reality at HTC, said that these arcades are a big hit in China.

“We see this moving very strongly in China, where there are basically thousands of these arcade operators opening up,” he said in an interview. “It’s everything from the traditional internet cafes, to the arcades that are linked to cinemas, to basically independent operators and shopping malls opening them up as well.”

Viveport Arcade can help drive that business in a couple of ways: first, operators get curated, frequently refreshed software that’s licensed for use in an arcade. Developers then have an opportunity to sell their software to those businesses and make money on its ongoing use.

Arcade operators pre-buy time through Viveport Arcade that they can then use to let users run VR experiences. When the credits are expended, HTC splits the proceeds evenly with the Vive developer whose software is used.

In the future, HTC may also work with developers on creating titles that can only be used in arcades because they require special hardware or a particular physical setup.

To inspire the creation of VR arcades, HTC also recently launched a VR theme park called Viveland in Taipei. It’s meant to serve as an example of what VR arcades could be, to inspire other people to operate their own and spread virtual reality.

Viveport Arcade is launching first in China and Taiwan. HTC says that it will then roll out to “thousands of locations” worldwide by the end of next year.

 

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– Blair Hanley Frank

Could Virtual Reality be the future of Recruitment?

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The recruitment process may take place in the Virtual World in the near future: Lloyds trials virtual tests for candidates

Lloyds Banking Group is launching a scheme that uses VR headsets to put job applicants to the test in virtual situations during the recruitment process.

Beyond gaming, there are a myriad ways companies are attempting to embrace virtual reality. The latest is in recruitment.

Lloyds Banking Group is launching a scheme that uses VR headsets to put job applicants to the test in virtual situations. No longer will the applicants have to describe how they would handle a certain situation, they will soon be asked to prove it but taking on a range of problem-solving tasks in virtual worlds.

The technology will be first used in Lloyds’ graduate recruitment drive this autumn as part of its 2017 Digital and IT Graduate Schemes.

By using the VR headsets, the assessor will be able to give candidates a range of situations and tasks and monitor their progress. They will be looking at how the candidates approach the tasks, how they solve them and if they encounter any problems.

Lloyds said this would give the company a chance to assess candidates in ways “that would otherwise be unfeasible in the conventional assessment process”.

A spokesperson added: “This demonstrates our commitment to future talent and in hiring the digital leaders of the future.”

During the VR interview, the candidate will have complete freedom of movement within a 360-degree virtual world and will be able to move virtual objects using tracked motion controls.

If you enjoyed this article, check out more Information Technology Industry insights by clicking here!

New Gadget will allow you to touch the world of VR

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First you were able to see the world of VR, then you were able to walk in it, next you’ll be able to touch it!

As much as we enjoy virtual reality these days, there’s still the occasional urge to fiddle with virtual objects using just our hands. If all goes well, the upcoming Manus VR glove will be the first to unwrap our hands from controllers, but it’ll only provide tactile feedback, meaning you still won’t be able to feel the shape nor physical properties of virtual objects. This is where Dexmo comes in: This mechanical exoskeleton glove tracks 11 degrees of freedom of motion and offers variable force feedback for each finger. To put it simply, you’ll be able to realistically squeeze a rubber duck in the VR world. Better yet, this seemingly clunky glove claim to be lightweight and also runs wirelessly “for a relatively long time.”

Dexta Robotics, the Chinese startup behind Dexmo, has spent the last two years coming up with over 20 prototypes before getting to the current version. Unfortunately, it’ll be a while before we can get our hands on this device. CEO Aler Gu told Engadget that he’s only made a batch of Dexmo and is currently seeking keen software developers plus VR/MR (mixed reality) market leaders who can take full advantage of his gear, before he eventually takes it to market — be it for gaming, education, medical or training.

“Selling Dexmo is different than selling consumer electronics because you can’t use Dexmo right out of the box,” Gu added. “It will take some really amazing content for people to realize how gaming-changing this innovation actually is.”

Little else is known about the Dexmo at the moment — no date nor price just yet. However, with Valve now opening up the HTC Vive’s trackers to third-party peripherals, we can already imagine how much more the VR experience will improve courtesy of these futuristic gloves.

– Richard Lai

Oculus Rift to Launch in UK

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Facebook has finally unveiled the UK launch date and price for its Oculus Rift virtual reality headset

Oculus Rift, the Facebook-owned virtual reality headset for gamers, is finally coming to the UK next month.

After launching in the US in March , Oculus has announced the Rift will go on sale in Europe and Canada on 20 September.

The headset will sell at a recommended retail price of £549 – significantly more than the $599 (£461) it costs in the US.

It is available to pre-order today from a range of retailers, including Amazon.co.uk , John Lewis ,Curry’s PC World , GAME Digital Plc , and the London department store Harrods.

“We’ve seen interest in virtual reality rise dramatically in the last few months, with sales of the Samsung Gear VR, powered by Oculus, headset up 310% in the last six weeks alone,”said Will Jones, Head of Buying for Electricals at John Lewis.

“The Oculus Rift device is a significant progression in virtual reality technology, set to reinvent how we work and play, and we are proud to offer our customers the chance to experience it first.”

The Oculus Rift, which began life as a Kickstarter project in 2012, has been through several pre-production models before being released to the public.

The finished virtual reality headset has an OLED display with a 2,160 x 1,200 resolution and a 110-degree field of view, designed to fully immerse the wearer in whatever they are watching.

It is intended for use with a PC, but the headset requires a lot of processing and graphics power, meaning that not all computers are compatible.

If you want to use it for gaming you’ll need a PC with at least an Nvidia GTX 970 GPU, an Intel i5-4590 processor and 8GB of RAM.

If you want to try Oculus Rift for yourself before buying, there will be demo experiences rolling out across the UK in the coming weeks.

Every Oculus Rift purchased headset ships with a copy of the virtual reality game Lucky’s Tale , along with hundreds of free 3D 360 videos and VR movies.

Users can buy more VR games and films from the Oculus Store, with several new titles being unveiled the Gamescom video game conference in Cologne, Germany, this week – including Dead & Buried , The Unspoken and Ripcoil.

– Sophie Curtis

HTC to launch its own Virtual Reality app store

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HTC is launching Viveport, an alternative to the Steam catalog of Vive virtual reality experiences, worldwide this autumn.

Viveport was announced earlier this year, and it launched in China — where Steam is a much less established platform — in the spring. Now, a global developer beta will launch soon, followed by a full rollout. Developers can register today on the Vive site.

The store is supposed to be a more general-interest alternative than the more gaming-focused Steam, and it will be available across multiple platforms: desktop; a mobile app; and an in-VR catalog connected to Vive Home, a virtual environment created by HTC. “We believe virtual reality is going to change the world,” says HTC Vive senior vice president Rikard Stelber, and Viveport is supposed to make it easier to find certain categories of VR that have broad appeal, like educational experiences, shopping, and creative tools.

Steam already offers a large non-gaming catalog. Besides general-purpose desktop software and traditional films, it offers a diverse range of VR titles, like the Tilt Brush painting program and an Apollo 11 educational experience. At the same time, the platform is overwhelmingly associated with games, and with thousands of VR and non-VR titles, it’s increasingly crowded. “We’re recommending developers to publish on all platforms,” says Stelber, including Steam. “We don’t necessarily want to compete with it, we basically want to add additional categories.” Viveport will offer a new, dedicated space to showcase VR experiences.

It’s less clear why consumers would go to Viveport instead of the extremely popular Steam, which they’ll already have to launch to use the Vive. HTC said in January that Viveport was “more of an option for people who can’t use Steam,” although Stelber says it’s since seen a lot of interest that justifies a larger release. The best argument for Viveport may be that Steam is confusingly overstuffed with products and features already, and a dedicated VR store would make the Vive easier to navigate — which, for a powerful but often difficult platform, is a good thing.

– Adi Robertson

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