Mixing real and virtual in WebAR: Augmented and mixed reality for everyone

Excited about augmented reality? Waiting to get your hands on that new shiny Magic Leap device? Think ARKit and ARCore are the best things to happen to mobile AR? Rabimba Karanjaiall explores all these examples in detail and explains how you can build your own mixed reality experiences using them together in an open platformthe webrunning directly from the browser in your mobile device.

Augmented reality is a hot topic. Apple has been touting its new and shiny augmented reality ARkit everywhere; Google has Project Tango and ARCore up its sleeves; and Microsoft is closing the real/non-real gap fast with HoloLens. At the same time, Facebook’s Oculus Rift and HTC’s Vive are both trying to dominate the virtual reality landscape. Each of these technologies promises a new world, but all have steep learning curves for developers—not to mention closed ecosystems. What we need is an open platform where developers can mash up the best of all worlds, creating mixed reality in a way that is device agnostic in approach and accessible by a range of devices, primarily all phones. Rabimba Karanjaiall explores current examples of AR in detail and explains how you can build your own mixed reality experiences using them together in an open platform—the web—running directly from the browser in your mobile device. Join in for a healthy dose of augmented reality, animation, and virtual Pokémons that demonstrates the power of browsers and the web armed with A-Frame, AR.js, and ARCore. You’ll learn how to get started on mixed reality applications that are immediately available to everyone with internet and a capable smartphone.