Over the weekend VRFocus reported on The New York Times announcing it’s first foray into augmented reality (AR) – its virtual reality (VR) app has been out for a while – with an app that’ll allow future issues to have AR enhanced articles. Now the news outlet has debuted its first AR experience preview piece for the Winter Olympics featuring four world-class athletes.
Supporting iOS 11 and created with Apple’s ARKit, the AR experience allows readers to meet figure skater Nathan Chen, big air snowboarder Anna Gasser, hockey goalie Alex Rigsby and short track speed skater J.R. Celski, just like they’d been paused mid-performance, walked out to the ice or to the slope and explored their form, their speed and their height, and learn what makes them the top athletes in their sport.
“The Times has been among the most innovative digital storytellers for many years. On desktop, mobile, in our exploration of data visualization and other forms of visual journalism, including virtual reality, we’ve been committed to creating the most compelling and vibrant report possible, and this experiment in AR is a part of that,” said Steve Duenes, assistant masthead editor, The New York Times in a statement. “The Times covers today’s most compelling news events from around the world. And now, our readers can get closer to these stories and subjects, from a possible border wall to a figure skater’s quadruple jump. They can take in the size, shape and details of the objects at the center of our coverage. There’s no question that these are early days for AR, but our work so far suggests that this emerging technology has real potential to help our readers experience the news differently, helping them understand the world more deeply.”
Additionally, there’s also Ralph Lauren AR interactive, produced by New York Times Company experiential design agency Fake Love. It’s the first AR experience from an advertiser to live inside The New York Times app for iOS and is accessible directly from The Times news feed.
While currently only available for iPhone and iPad devices the AR experience is coming to Android soon, built with Google’s ARCore. When that happens VRFocus will let you know.