Recent reports have revealed the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has officially granted US tech giant Apple a patent for a new augmented reality (AR) version of the iPad’s Sketchbook app.
By using Sketchbook, Apple users can soon place realistic 3D virtual objects in their real-world environment, or alternatively, objects selected from a content library, using the iPads powerful Lidar scanner to accurately track surroundings.
Digital artists can also use an Apple Pencil to edit a digital object’s colour, size, and texture.
The news comes as an increasing number of enterprise use cases emerge for the iPad, which show the hardware is becoming a great tool for remote and deskless workers.
Recently, lorry manufacturing firm Peterbilt deployed ARTech, an iPad-based AR solution that improves customer service at dealerships and remote audits at production sites.
US mixed reality (MR) firm Taqtile has also enhanced its Manifest platform for Apple iPads, providing frontline workers with 3D visualisations to improve customer and worker remote collaboration.
By incorporating Apple’s familiar framework, both firms have enabled flexible and accessible enterprise-grade 3D visualisations.
Developments for Apple WebAR
The news comes as the Cupertino-based firm powers its immersive experiences with its ‘ARKit’ software development kit (SDK) to cement its dedication to AR.
Tim Cook, Chief Executive of Apple, confirmed growing interest in XR technologies after proclaiming himself ‘AR fan #1.’
Aside from new and upcoming iPad AR features, the global tech firm has updated its iPhone platform to add new immersive navigational features.
In June, Apple Pay Express Transit users in New York City (NYC) gained access to a WebAR walkthrough that transformed the metro with immersive visuals such as sweeping NYC cityscapes.
An additional June iOS update added AR navigation tools to Apple Maps, and at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) event, the firm revealed its mobile Maps application would support 3D popups such as directions and street names.
The news comes as Apple posted a job advert to hire a ‘next-gen’ engineer ahead of its upcoming mixed reality (MR) headset launch.
Apple has faced several delays in the development of its head-mounted display, although recent reports have hinted at a potential release date in the fourth quarter of 2022.
More details emerged this month after veteran Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo unveiled the headset would contain Apple’s M1 chip, boosting the hardware’s capabilities to modern Macbook PC levels.
Additionally, Apple has filed numerous patents for the upcoming headset that suggest groundbreaking features such as Auralization, Direct Retinal Projectors, ring-shaped controllers, MR user interfaces, and biometric monitoring technologies.
