But wait, you say — I can already measure things with my phone — I just use my physical handset as a de facto ruler! Sure, that works, if you’re really looking to hack a solution. But AR Measure is a much more elegant way to go about things. The brain child of creative collective Laan Labs, this little mobile app actually allows you to have an adjustable ruler on your phone. And it all relies on augmented reality.
In order for the app to work, AR Measure determines the distance between identified points in space. This in turn lets you measure any physical object using nothing more than your phone’s camera. You just point the camera at your desired starting point, pull your phone away from it, and end at the end of an object (or distance) — think of it as a measuring tape that you reel off with your phone’s camera.
The development of the app is still in relatively nascent stages, and as per the footage in the demo video, the resulting measurements aren’t completely accurate. But we’re talking a matter of millimeters, not inches, so it’s quite impressive all the same. And seeing as you probably don’t carry a ruler or measuring tape around in your back pocket, this app could be seriously helpful in a surprising number of situations.
Alas, Laan Labs has not yet announced a release date, so there’s no telling when we’ll actually be able to play around with AR Measure. But we do know that the app runs on Apple’s new ARKit framework, which means that it’s likely the app will appear when iOS 11 rolls out in full. That said, Laan Labs will let you enter your email address so you can be notified when the app debuts.
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