Wendy Wise on developing for virtual reality and augmented reality

In this episode of the O’Reilly Programming Podcast, I talk with Wendy Wise, technical director of emerging technologies at Turner Broadcasting System, and author of the recent article “How to pick the right authoring tools for VR and AR.” She is developing Learning Paths, which will be released on Safari in 2018, on how to get started with ARKit using Unity and XCode.

Discussion points:

• On the distinction between virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), Wise says that in VR, “the virtual world is painted completely over everything and it obscures your eyes completely from the outside world. In AR, you have a view of the real world, with computer-aided content laid on top of that, augmenting actual reality.”
• Apple’s ARKit, which allows developers to create augmented reality applications that work on the newer iPhones and iPads, “opened up the augmented reality landscape to billions of people who can now use AR apps without having to purchase any specific hardware,” Wise says. “Developers in the Apple framework and the Google framework can now develop AR apps and have access to billions of users.”
• Why Wise says that “the service industry is going to be really impacted by augmented reality in a positive way.”
• Wise predicts there will eventually be standardization regarding AR and VR because developers are going to demand it. “The hardware and software industries haven’t standardized any tools, interfaces, or programming languages,” she says. “Until that time, there’s an opening in the market for innovative companies or startups to step in to try to create some sort of standardized tool set.”

Other links:

• Wendy Wise’s book Anyone Can Create an App
• Unity, Xcode, and Unreal Engine are among the tools for developing AR or VR apps that Wise discusses.
• Developers for the HoloLens can start with Unity, and then use Visual Studio to test and deploy the application, Wise says.