Apple AR: Watch Your Shows in 360° on Floating Orb Thanks to ARKit

Of all the ways I thought I'd be watching my favorite TV shows, on a floating orb was not one of them.

Nevertheless, technology has managed to surprise me once again. A new demo has shown a 360° video being played on a floating orb in the middle of someone's room using Apple's ARKit.

Could this be the future of media consumption?

The demo was posted by YouTube user Thye Chean Lim who has been working with ARKit for a while, mainly working to develop different ways of viewing photography and videos. They used a 360° video from National Geographic of a few divers encountering a Great Hammerhead shark.

Instead of watching the 360° on a VR headset, as is typical of these kinds of videos, this one is projected onto a floating, rotating orb in the middle of a room. Complete with full audio, and the video in high quality, this is a viewing experience like nothing we've seen so far. The orb rotates just in time to see the full scale of action happening as the divers encounter the shark. The seamlessness of the sound, video quality, and rotation make it seem like this 360° video was always meant to be viewed on a floating orb.

Thye Chean Lim has not revealed any plans to further develop this concept yet, but the video does make us think that the orb could be a cool way to watch 360° videos without a VR/AR headset.

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Cover image via Thye Chean Lim/YouTube