Leading technology innovators, Apple, recently announced the release of a new Augmented Reality (AR) app. The app builds on the Apple ARKit framework to offer unique augmented reality experiences to smartphone users. According to Apple, this offering is intended to work best with the iPhone 12 line-up and the iPad Pro for 2020.
The app release is intended to generate excitement amongst consumers for the second season of Apple’s popular TV series “For all Mankind”. The Apple+ series has gained a lot of attention from the public over the last year, and Apple hopes to build on the audience immersion with the introduction of the new app. According to Apple, the “Time Capsule” experience brings the world of the TV show into the homes of the fans.
What Does the App Do?
The “For All Mankind: Time Capsule” app is an immersive AR experience that allows you to bring elements of the television show into your home. You can uncover intriguing moments from the lives of main characters from the series, like Danny Stevens and his parents, Gordo and Tracy Stevens. The app will also explore memories and experiences that occur for Danny within the ten years that pass between the first and second seasons.
The immersive app provides a full interactive AR experience that allows you to join Danny as he searches through artifacts to provide information on the other characters. According to the Executive Producer of the Show, Ron Moore, the opportunity to use AR in television apps opens the door to a new world of audience immersion. It’s now possible to bring the world of various television series into the homes of an audience unlike ever before.
According to Moore, he was intrigued by the opportunity to use AR from the very beginning and wanted to access the technology to immerse the audience in the alternative history that’s a big part of the series. The AR app helps to explain some of the tech advances that are evident in the show, but not fully explored.
Telling Stories Through AR
The AR app comes with different objects that tell a specific story. Apple devices with a LiDAR scanner can also use a slide projector to look through photos of Danny and the Stevens family, projected onto their walls at home. Various products from the show, such as newspapers or answering machines should give you extra information, while teasing the events to come in season 2.
While the For All Mankind app wasn’t designed for the enterprise, it does give an interesting glimpse into the way Apple is choosing to engage with its audience in 2021 and beyond – a trend that will no doubt continue once Apple eventually enters the XR for enterprise marketplace sometime in the future.
The AR app is now available and free to access from the Apple App store, for iPad and iPhone.
