Apple AR: Authentic Robot Commanders Make for a Scary Yet Satisfying ARKit Experience

Augmented reality has an incredible way of integrating things into our world that we can typically only see in movies like ghosts in a haunted house or Sharknados. However, a new experiment made with Apple's ARKit has changed the game in realistic augmented reality characters.

The experiment was created by Duncan Walker (@Trashgames), an independent game developer. The demo shows an armed robot commander marching through the streets among crowds of people. The animation and the camera work are so strong that, for a minute, I had trouble figuring out if the robot was actually just a person in a costume. The robot's movements are incredibly human-like and it moves through the crowd without bumping into people.

Walker's work is so good that it makes us awed and a little nervous about what's possible using ARKit. If augmented reality ghosts and monsters can look this realistic, our smartphones could get really scary really fast. Still, realistic characters interacting with our world through ARKit is one of the coolest technologies I've seen to date, one that could change storytelling and how we interact with cinema and fiction.

Check out the full video demo here.

Duncan Walker/Giphy

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Cover image via Duncan Walker/Twitter