1st Unity plug-in for augmented reality on physical devices
Mar 25, 2013 No Comments
The makers of Sphero – the smartphone controlled robotic ball, have announced new ways developers can make the ball more appealing to consumers with augmented reality based gaming applications.
Orbotix have created a new Sphero augmented reality plug-in for Unity, as well as making a new Sphero AR SDK available on Github – the world’s largest open source code sharing community.
This means that developers can simply insert their 3D models and create games/apps around them – all using the Sphero ball as a physical moving AR marker. There are already augmented reality games/apps available, such as Shaky the Beaver, launched in November 2012.
In that game, the player can drive the Sphero ball across a surface which, through the screen of an iPad or iPhone, looks like it is being ridden by an animated beaver.
Swiping a finger across the screen launches virtual cupcakes into Sharky’s mouth.
Today’s announcement should mean the existing library of about twenty augmented reality apps could grow massively as the plug-in forms a bridge between Unity and Sphero’s native Android and iOS SDKs. It also provides vision detection by automatically coordinating the camera and ball position, distance, orientation and more.
Designed for iOS, with an update that will include Android coming soon, this is the first Unity plug-in that allows developers to create augmented reality apps for physical devices.
“Until now, there hasn’t been a simple way for developers to experiment in augmented reality, especially for gameplay,” said Adam Wilson, co-founder and chief software architect of Orbotix.
“We’re constantly looking for ways to break the boundaries and redefine gaming. By making Sphero easily accessible on virtually all development platforms, we hope to inspire a new class of creative game developers and designers to build games that truly merge the physical and virtual worlds.”
“Right now is the perfect time for augmented reality to gain new momentum because hardware finally has the needed sophistication of built-in cameras,” said Orbotix Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Ian Bernstein. “Interest from developers and companies in augmented reality is growing, and we’re excited to make this technology more attainable for everyone.”
To further incentivise developers, Orbotix announced a new Sphero App Bounty program. Developers are invited to create new apps for Sphero within selected genres. A complete list can be found on the Sphero Developer site. “If the app meets the pre-determined requirements, the developer gets paid. Simple as that,” said Ross Ingram, head of developer relations for Orbotix. “It’s a fun way for developers to build cool games.”
Unity Technologies seems to be in the tech headlines a lot recently, mainly because of 3D graphics engine’s support for the upcoming Oculus Rift device (although there has been criticism that the free version of Unity will not be supported).
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