Developer uses AR tool to create virtual business card

An ARKit developer has enhanced the regular business card by adding AR and image tracking.

For many people, business cards have become obsolete, supplanted by email, messaging and smart phones. However, a new augmented reality business card may help make them relevant again. Developer, Oscar Falmer, has created an AR app that brings business cards to life. He created the app in just three days using the ARkit – Apple’s augmented reality development platform. It allows people to take a regular business card and add on AR objects, web pages, and contact information. As the card moves in the real world, the virtual elements move with it. The AR add-ons extend the limited information that will fit on a business card.

Falmer used an ARKit feature called Image Live Track Technology to create his card. This is a feature that allows a phone to track an image in 3D space and use it as an anchor to attach computer-generated images. Unlike a physical business card, Falmer’s AR card needs a phone equipped with the card read app in order to view the extra AR features. Falmer acknowledges, in a recent article, that this gives the app limited utility – at least until affordable AR glasses are available. “The current limitation [of some AR apps] is hardware which is still big and expensive–like Hololens, Vuzix, or Daqri headsets. … It will be ubiquitous once affordable AR glasses are available on the market.”

At Springwise, we have seen a rapid growth in the number of AR applications applied to objects. Recently, these have included a ‘smart’ cake that can play music and a beer label that can tell how customers are feeling. The ARKit framework was released in 2017 as part of iOS 11. Up to now, the majority of apps developed using the framework have been gaming apps. Will apps like Falmer’s help to bring AR functionality to more objects?