Why to build an AR and VR app using Amazon Sumerian

Before we could understand the reasons for building an AR/VR app with Amazon Sumerian, lets first understand what is AR and VR and from where it all started.

Augmented Reality(AR):- Augmented Reality is a technology of superimposing digital content such as video, audio, 3D element etc. on to the real world. AR enriches the real world with digital information. Its real-time application includes Pokemon GO game or Snapchat lenses which captures your face or your surrounding and adds some filter to it.
          
 

Virtual Reality(VR):- Virtual Reality makes use of technology to create a simulated environment and place the user inside the environment for the user to experience the world other than the real world. Using VR devices such as HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Google Cardboard, it lets the user completely immersed in an experience that completely shuts out the real world. VR is useful for experiencing things or places which is out of reach, for example,  experiencing ecosystem in Seattle.

AR and VR have one big thing in common, their ability to alter the perception of the world but where they differ is the perception of the presence. VR takes you someplace else, whereas, in AR, you are not transported to another world, rather you are experiencing digital content in the real world.

Changing the Way We Communicate
In 1994, there was a spectrum defined Virtuality Continuum which was a continuous spectrum ranging from real to virtual. There also exists a mixed reality between real and virtual which is also defined as hybrid reality to produce new environment and visualization. Nowadays customers are targetting their app somewhere between this spectrum.
                                                                               

Steps involved in building an AR/VR app:

First of all, skills are required for building an AR/VR app. Then coming up with an idea, which framework to use, defining a platform, developing a platform, publish an app, the customer finds the app on the store and purchase it for further use.

These are all the steps required for building an AR/VR app for a single platform. All these steps are repeated multiple times for multiple platforms making the process more complicated. AWS took this opportunity to make the process of making AR/VR app simpler by making use of only three steps.  Idea -> Build app on a browser -> Publish

It is providing an editor which can be open in any browser supporting WebGL (which most of the browser support) which remove the steps of deciding framework, defining and developing the platform. There is no role of framework and platform. Once built you can deploy it anywhere. BUILD ONCE, RUN ANYWHERE. 

How the process is much simpler with Amazon Sumerian.

It makes use of a web specification WEBXR, allowing support to browsers for AR and VR. Their goal was to abstract API that interacts with hardware so that developers can write their own experience and allow you to open in any browser. It is built on HTML, Javascript, WebGL allowing 3D rendering and WebXR. 

Benefits of Amazon Sumerian

1-  Run in any browser that supports WebGL or WebVR rendering.
2- Getting started with it is as simple as logging into the AWS Management console.
3- Provides a web-based editor to quickly create professional quality scenes and a visual scripting tool to build the logic that controls how the object and characters in the scene behave and respond to actions.4- Easy to build scenes where rich, natural interactions between objects, characters and users which occurs through the use of AWS services such as Amazon Lex, Amazon Polly, AWS Lambda, AWS IoT, Amazon DynamoDb.
5- Create a realistic, interactive VR, AR application in a few hours.
6- Availability of MapBox Location Services which enables users to integrate 3D maps and surfaces into their AR/VR applications and bring location-based experiences to life.
 

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