Augmented reality is slowly gaining traction and catching up in all industries. After 2015, the word AR has been thrown around a lot and every industry has set up a research lab to work on AR development. The best thing about AR is, it’s not limited to the tech industry. The uses of AR can be found in medical, automobile and many other industries. Your creativity is the limit to AR usage. We have even witnessed popular games like Pokemon go in AR.
With this rapid development in AR tech, is this the right time to get into AR development? Let’s find out.
So, what is limiting the widespread use of AR tech?
The answer is hardware and its cost. The software development in AR has reached a level where even a kid with a laptop can develop an AR application. But to test an AR app you need an AR capable device. Devices capable of running AR apps are priced at a range above $1000. Not everyone can afford that. Even in industries, a huge investment is required to integrate AR into everyday activity.
The main limitation is the amount of image processing involved in it. AR requires the processor to capture the video, process every frame and add the extra information provided by the AR application. This might be simple if it’s only an image but to process every frame in real time takes more computing power. AR dedicated devices have a separate processor for this purpose. This adds on to the cost of the hardware.
What is Changing in the AR industry?
In recent years, with the internet giants like Google entering the AR competition and making it available on mobile devices, it’s changing the way people can experience AR. Now you can get an AR capable mobile device for as low as $200. The processing power of mobile devices have jumped by many folds in the recent years. With the announcement of Google tensor chip dedicated to handle AI processing, more powerful AR applications can be run on mobile devices.
With this the industrial AR development found new traction and rapidly increased. Now all industries are deploying AR apps that can be used for everyday activity.
In recent times, AR has been used in games like Pokemon AR which proved how AR can be put in use in the gaming industry and can be successful.
Should you become an AR developer now?
It’s a no-brainer. If you are someone who is interested in computers and programming. You should definitely get into AR development. It’s going to boom in the coming years and will be used everywhere. Another reason to learn AR development is the lack of skilled workforce in the AR industry. If you are an AR developer now you will definitely land on a job within a few weeks.
According to the trend from Google, it’s very clear that the consumers are actively looking for AR applications. This trend is expected to go uphill in the next few years. So, now is the time for you to learn AR.
Source: Google Trends
Should I learn AR or VR?
There is always confusion on whether you should get into AR or VR. Unlike AR, VR is mostly used in the entertainment industry. AR has mostly Utility based applications. It’s not that AR cannot be used for entertainment, it’s simple what works better in which industry.
As we discussed earlier, you should pick your industry before learning development. If you have decided to get into the entertainment industry then you can probably consider getting into VR development rather than AR.
How to become an AR developer?
This is a tricky question. AR is used in almost all industries but learning all technologies will be very confusing and time consuming. You need to pick an industry and learn the industry software rather than learning basic AR.
For example, if you want to become a game developer and develop AR games. Then you need to learn how to make video games. If you want to develop AR Apps for android then you should concentrate on learning Android studio.
You can learn AR with an online course or you can learn it for free with YouTube videos. Just open your laptop and let the creative juices flow. If you want to get into game development, then you can hire a tutor to learn Unity.