5 May 2023
|
Mike Boland
AWE Talks: Getting Started with Niantic Lightship
AWE USA 2022
Welcome back to AWE Talks, our series that revisits the most engaging content from AWE’s catalog of conference sessions. To gear up for AWE USA 2023, we're diving into the most insightful and evergreen sessions from recent AWE events.
This week, we examine Niantic's Lightship platform. As an AR development kit (ARDK), it's meant to democratize and streamline the creation of geospatial AR experiences. Niantic's Jameka March shows us how.
See the summarized takeaways below, along with the full session video. Stay tuned for more video highlights each week and check out the full library on awe.live and AWE’s YouTube Channel.
And check out the AWE USA 2023 speakers and agenda to get excited for the big show...
Speakers:
Jameka March - Partner Developer, Niantic
– Niantic's Lightship ARDK is a tool for any developer keen on geospatial AR.
– Built on top of Unity, developers can create for Android, iOS, and web AR.
– It's built on a few core tenets to infuse digital dimension to the physical world.
– The first is meshing, which enables geometric scene mapping.
– This enables key functionality like realistic physics and interactions.
– Scene understanding adds awareness of depth and semantic variables.
– This is so AR can be activated based on contextual cues (e.g., water vs land).
– Shared AR then enables multiplayer experiences through anchored elements.
– This lets many individuals interact with AR objects and each other synchronously.
– Lastly, VPS enables geographically-anchored and persistent content.
– This adds geo-relevance for location-based discovery and serendipity.
– These capabilities don't all have to be used, and can be selectively applied.
– They can also be integrated in deliberate sequences to "walk before you run"
– For example, meshing can be used first to get a feel for AR scene understanding.
– Then, shared AR can be added for AR experiences that have social dimension.
– Altogether, Lightship represents a powerful tool to democratize geospatial AR.
For more color, technical detail, and examples of Lightship, check out the full video below.
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