We’re officially in December, as such the very first news relating to festive releases and updates are already winging their way into the VRFocus inbox. Much as with Halloween and October you can expect an array of holiday season news throughout December, and the first out of the gate comes from award winning children’s software developer Dr. Panda.
Dr. Panda has, since its formation in 2012 created over thirty videogames and has produces a series of new app connected toys for kids throughout the world. Now the company is turning once more to augmented reality (AR) as they reveal their holiday app: Dr. Panda AR Christmas Tree.
The new app was created in Apple’s development software ARKit, and provides a combination of an AR Christmas tree and advent calendar. Allowing children to countdown the days until Christmas and decorate their own Christmas tree in any way they so choose.
“Augmented reality technology is definitely changing the play experience not only for kids but for all consumers. Built on Apple’s new ARKit technology, Dr. Panda AR Christmas Tree brings the latest technology trend to the hands of our fans for free,” said Tom Buyckx, CMO & General Manager of Dr. Panda USA. “This AR app expands our portfolio of products and brings us one step closer to be a 360 brand that stretches the creativity in kids.”
Revealed back in June this year, Apple’s ARKit has been a revolution for developing AR apps and experiences. With Apple themselves being almost overwhelmed by the amount of creativity being displayed by professionals and amateurs alike.
“They’ve built everything from virtual tape measures [to] ballerinas made out of wood dancing on floors.” Apple vice-president of product marketing Greg Joswiak said in an interview less than a month after the software package went live. “It’s absolutely incredible what people are doing in so little time. Who knows the kind of things [are] coming down the road, but whatever those things are, we’re going to start at zero.”
The Dr. Panda AR Christmas Tree app is available from today for free on the App Store, though is not out in the UK at the time of writing. You can see a preview video of the app in action below.
via Mint VR