You can soon measure things with your smartphone - thanks to Apple

If you've ever wanted to measure something but did not have a ruler or measuring tape on hand (I mean, who carries those things around besides contractors?), developrs have come up with the perfect solution - a virtual ruler.

At Apple's annual software developers' conference earlier this June, the tech giant announced its latest operating systems for its various devices. One that stood out is ARKit, a platform for developers to create augmented reality (AR) applications for both iPhone and iPad.

The implementation of the virtual ruler can be seen in the video below:

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/wired/videos/491339424545854/[/embed]

In the video, we can see users measure the length of various objects just by pointing at them with their smartphone cameras.

[embed]https://twitter.com/madewithARKit/status/879009334440734720[/embed]

Very nifty indeed for your next home renovation project.

According to The Verge, having the phone actually be aware of the three-dimensional space in its view allows for precise measurements, which can be represented with a neat hologram of a measuring tape. How cool is that?

ARKit will come with iOS 11 this coming September. When it is released, get ready for other useful applications utilising AR just like this one.

akosasi@sph.com.sg