Apple AirTags are the perfectly boring, functional future of AR

Most iPhone owners have already used AR on their Apple device, even if they didn’t realize it. One of the most useful AR tools built into the iPhone is the simplest, the virtual tape measure in the Measure app. This is useful if you want to know how wide your new bed is or what size frame you need to hang that photo. wall. And Niantic Labs five years ago Pokemon Go became a viral AR sensation, with millions of people experiencing the physical world through their phone screens while hunting virtual game characters.

AirTags can be personalized with messages or emoji.

Photo: Apple

The difference with AR games such as Pokemon Go, Wetzstein says, is that they still rely primarily on the phone’s Wi-Fi and GPS radios to determine its location, sensors that can’t provide nearly as accurate location data as ultra-wideband technology. Something cheap and energy efficient, like the AirTag, says Wetzstein, seems “the perfect choice” for enabling apps that rely on more accurate tracking.

Jessica Brillhart, who leads the mixed reality lab at the USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies, points out that location tags can also be a way to share two-way information about objects in a space. Attach one of these tags to an object, give it a name, and “the system can learn at scale what is a refrigerator, what is a bridge, what is a tree,” says Brillhart. “So it’s an entry point, but it works together, it provides information to the system and helps people put the world in context.”

It’s worth noting that Apple hasn’t identified this as a specific use case for AirTags, but the fact cannot be ignored that once a network of location-aware devices exists in the world, that network could provide the knowledge needed to unlock more powerful applications. .

“The biggest hurdle with AR is really knowing what you’re looking at or knowing where you are, but these AirTags can contribute to that understanding,” says Brillhart.

Apple has not yet responded to requests for comment on this story. Of course, Apple’s AR ambitions probably don’t end with AirTags, the Measure app, and flashy games. The company is reportedly working on AR glasses, as are Facebook, Snap and others, although more recent reports suggest that Apple’s first heads-up display may be more of a niche device than a consumer-friendly product.

But even if those Apple AR glasses arrive and become a success, and even if more like AR games Pokemon Go Created to steal the hearts of children and adults, iPhone owners will continue to experience AR in other, more mundane, but ultimately more useful ways. Whether using their iPhone to measure a filing cabinet for their home office, or following on-screen arrows to locate their AirTagged backpack before heading to school, they are connected to Apple’s vision of augmented reality. No glasses needed.

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