© Wallace Wang 2018
Wallace WangBeginning ARKit for iPhone and iPadhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-4102-8_1

1. Understanding Augmented Reality and ARKit

Wallace Wang1 
(1)
San Diego, CA, USA
 

You may have heard of virtual reality (VR), but there’s a similar innovation that’s appearing on mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad that’s called augmented reality (AR). Although they may rely on similar technology, virtual reality and augmented reality offer vastly different uses in everyday life.

Virtual reality works by forcing users to strap a device around their head like an alien facehugger. Such VR headsets completely isolate the user from his or her surroundings and immerses the user in a completely fictional world. NASA uses virtual reality to ...

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