I often explore ideas which could be developed through new technologies such as the AR. But to visualise what is actually feasible and what is not is necessary to be aware of how, at least on a basic level, a specific technology works. This is the reason why I decided to develop this simple project with ARKit on the most popular AR engine in the world, an IPhone. From a pratical viewpoint my main two goals were learning:
- How to materialize objects in a 3-dimensional space, alter their shape and motion.
- How to let the user interact with them (in other words, how to manage a 2-dim input in a 3-dim space through hit-testing).
ARSolarSystem is a simple Augmented Reality iOS app which shows a simplified version of the Solar System around the IPhone user. The planets show both the revolutionary and rotational motions, which, for spacial and esthetic reasons do not reproduce (of course, in proportion) the real ones. The diameters and distances are not proportional as well, but they do imitate certain aspects of the real model (for instance: all the planets rotate in a counter-clockwise way, expect Venus and Uranus). The user can also interact with the planets tapping on them; this action will show a simple sheet giving some details of the selected planet (Orbital period, Rotational period, Diameter, Gravity). Note: the UI of this app has been tested only on IPhone X.
