Founded by former Google and Apple engineers, AiFi is combining artificial intelligence (A.I.) with ARKit on Apple products such as iPhones and iPads. Speaking to VRFocus, co-founder and CEO Steve Gu explained how AiFi has enabled consumer products to understand detailed 3D shapes and activities, including individuals and their surroundings.
The first application Gu showcases is Wonderlens, an application for your iOS devices that allows you to ‘segment yourself’ or distinguish yourself from the background in real-time. Similar to how conventional methods would use green screens to ‘transport’ the individual on screen somewhere else, with AiFi’s technology no laborious hours of keying out are needed to get a rough outline. No green or blue screen is needed either. All you need is an iPhone or iPad, and the user is able to transport themselves to the top of a mountain or watch creatures swim by under the ocean as shown in the image above. Wonderlens is available on the App Store now. Gu mentions that it will be coming to Android devices in the future as well.
The second application similarly uses Apple products. Holo Messenger allows users to take a video or image of themselves and send that as a hologram. Inspired by the holographic messaging system used in Star Wars, Holo Messenger lets users record a video message using their phones, then applies augmented reality (AR) filters to make the image appear like the grainy, blue-tinted holograms used in the movies. You simply need to record an image or video recording of yourself, and the message will be sent to users with Holo Messenger for them to see the holographic version of what you recorded on a flat surface through a droid from Star Wars like BB8 or R2D2.
“Our engineers and scientists have been developing this enabling technology to power future business applications,” said Steve Gu, CEO, AiFi. “Imagine that once even a single cell phone camera can understand the intricate motion, 3D shape, and various activities of individual people, the implication is simply tremendous and mind blowing. We could easily enable cameras to interpret your gesture, intention, body shape, motion, and activities practically in the blink of an eye.”
AiFi is not only using their technology for instant real-time AR creations on consumer-facing technology, but is also focusing on retail environments. Through AiFi’s system, shoppers will be able to come into a retail store and pick up items without having to use cash, a card or scan bar codes. They are hoping to bring it to hospital settings, physical therapy and sports as well and are looking for partners to further expand on their SDK’s.
“Today we are bringing a blend of the physical world and digital world into everyone’s life with tools they can use,” Gu continues, “but as we go forward we are taking these solutions and working with great partners to solve large scale checkout free solutions for the retail space. We are very excited that we can use these technologies to improve user experience, to entertain, and to benefit humanity at large.”
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