Augmented Reality is the new trending word in the digital world. It is indeed very difficult to find someone who has hardly heard of this technology. There are many industries like education, healthcare, e-commerce, etc.that have already implemented AR. It is to be believed that by 2021 augmented and virtual reality market will increase by $108 billion. The AR market is growing very rapidly and it is very huge. This is the reason that various major companies like Apple, Facebook, and Google, etc. are investing in AR. Open Source Augmented Reality SDK plays a vital role in the creation and development of new AR experiences and Apps.

Role of Open Source Augmented Reality SDKs:

The main role of the AR SDK (Software Development Kit) is to fuse information and digital content with the real world. AR SDK is well equipped with some unique properties. This will help the Augmented Reality Developers to render, track and recognize the application. It provides with some libraries and tools for developers to develop Augmented Reality applications.

What is an open source augmented reality SDK?

Open Source projects are very easy to customize which gives developers the freedom to play with the code according to their needs. When an open source SDK is included then you know every bit of data that the vendor will collect about the users from websites as well as devices. It gives you the ability to go through the code and determine whether that code is meeting security standards. There is a misconception that open source AR SDKs affect the weight of the app. It is not related to open or closed source SDKs. But it is related to general software processes and quality.

It is indeed very important to know about the practices that are adopted by third-party vendors when integrating with their SDKs. Augmented Reality allows augmenting the physical environment into a completely new and unique way. This led the developers to have the best open source ar software development kits to build powerful AR games and applications.

Best Open Source Augmented Reality SDKs:

ARCore:

ARCore is launched by Google in early 2018 which is the best open-source augmented reality SDK (Apache license). It will help to bring the amazing AR experiences to Android devices. ARCore has three prime abilities like environmental understanding, light estimation, and motion tracking.

ARKit:

During the Worldwide Developers Conference that was conducted on 5 June 2017, Apple introduced its own augmented reality SDK. It provides a great framework that will help developers and brands to create with the best experiences which are compatible with iPad and iPhone devices. ARKit works only with AppleA9 and A10 CPUs, that is the reason that augmented reality will only be available for the devices manufactured after 2015.

AR.js:

AR.js is an open-source augmented reality SDK for the web which is powered by JavaScript. This solution will help you to bring augmented reality experience to your web browser without any need to install or download the app. It is compatible with all the mobile platforms that include Android, iOS 11 devices and Windows Mobile. AR.js will surely suit all your needs if an open source AR software runs perfectly on the web browser.

EasyAR:

EasyAR can be considered as a next-generation SDK that offers a wide range of features. Some of these features are screen recording, 3D tracking, and SLAM. The basic package is free for developers who are looking to develop augmented reality applications. It is bundled with many features that will make your augmented reality app running in a very short timeframe.

PlugXR supporting easy migration between SDKs:

PlugXR supports open source SDKs like ARCore, ARKit, Vuforia, and other SDKs. It removes the hurdles of installing Android Studio, XCODE by providing .apk, and .ipa files within the platform that will publish your Apps in the App Store and Play Store. This shows that there is no software dependency that will allow migrating between SDKs anytime during the development process. We will be supporting a migration feature between SDKs in our upcoming versions.

Conclusion:

Augmented Reality is expanding across many industries and open source SDKs which are mentioned in the blog can be very useful to the developers who want to make use of AR in a very effective way. Since you have the list of augmented reality SDKs and the major features offered by them, you can choose the best tool for creating amazing open source ar apps.