UPDATED 15:03 EDT / SEPTEMBER 19 2017

EMERGING TECH

Quartz’s iPhone news app gets augmented reality treatment with ARKit

News readers who use Quartz Media LLC’s iPhone app can now experience the news in full, live 3-D right from their phones with an augmented reality update.

With this addition, some Quartz news stories will include illustrative 3-D objects with news stories. The app is available for iOS 11 devices and is currently rolling out to the Apple App Store.

For an example of how the news gets even better with AR, Quartz has a demo displaying the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft, which recently ended its 20-year mission to study Saturn and its moons. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration bid the spacecraft and its mission an emotional farewell last week as the vessel plummeted into frilly clouds of the gas giant — sending its last images as it fell.

Using the Quartz AR news update and the iPhone camera, the Cassini spacecraft can be placed directly into the world in front of the user in all its splendor.

Once placed, users can re-size the vessel – even experience it in its life-size – and even walk around it to get a look at the fine details. The app uses NASA’s own 3-D model produced as an educational tool to help the public understand the nature of the mission and the technological expertise that went into Cassini’s mission.

To make full use of the Quartz AR app, iPhone users will need an iPhone 6S or newer and update to Apple’s new iOS 11. Older phones will be able to display 3-D objects and allow people to explore them, but users will not be able to see them in augmented reality.

iOS 11 launched this afternoon with augmented reality capability via ARKit, which makes this 3-D technology available to the masses. Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said today is “a day to remember,” during an appearance on Good Morning America.

“Well this is huge because it’s the first time that hundreds of millions of customers will be able to use AR for the first time,” Cook said. “So we’re bringing it to the mainstream, if you’ve got an iPhone 6s or later, you have augmented reality today.”

Quartz’s app update follows a number of companies taking advantage of this launch today to add AR to their experience. E-retailer Overstock.com Inc. also today released an update to its iPhone shopping app that allows users to view 3-D true-to-life-size models in high resolution of products before purchase. And furniture retailer Ikea also has an app planned to roll out for iOS 11 and ARKit before the end of this month that will allow buyers to view what a chair or sofa would look like in their own home.

Image: Quartz

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