Adobe Aero
Adobe debuts Aero, an Augmented Reality app for creators.
Adobe Aero is helping democratize AR as a new medium for creative expression, making it easy to design, build, and publish AR experiences without any complex coding. It’s now available as a free iOS app for iPhone and iPad.
Design and share AR experiences using assets you’ve created in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and more. Aero adds a new dimension to the way designers and artists tell stories, extending tools they already use and love. This makes it easy for creatives to bring their ideas into AR without a steep learning curve.
I’ve been part of the private beta group working with Adobe Aero since it was announced at last year’s Adobe MAX 2018. I’ve loved experimenting with Aero for the past year, sharing my AR creations on social media, and on stage at my keynotes. I’ve also used Aero to build quick AR demos for my game REALorAR.com. It’s incredibly exciting to see Aero released to the public today at Adobe MAX 2019.
Left: Original collage “Mae West's Face which May be Used as a Surrealist Apartment” Salvador Dalí, 1934, Art Institute of Chicago. Right: Augmented Realty collage of Dalí’s “Mae West’s Face” by Helen Papagiannis, 2019. More on this AR recreation at this link.
It’s important to note that Aero isn’t just for designers: it’s a great tool for anyone interested in AR who is eager to explore this new medium, particularly if you don’t have a coding or engineering background. Educators, entrepreneurs, enthusiasts: this is for you. Brands and businesses: you as well.
When I began working in AR in 2005, the primary focus of the field as a whole was on the technology; content came much later, if it even did, and it was typically an afterthought. At a time when most researchers and developers were working on registration and tracking problems in AR, I was fortunate to be a member of an extremely unique lab at York University in Toronto, Canada (led by Dr. Caitlin Fisher), where we were working on defining the future of AR storytelling.
Our lab was very different from other research facilities at the time: we were based in the Faculty of Fine Arts and Department of Film, whereas most university research labs in AR were found in computer science departments. Other labs typically focused on one particular area of technical research in AR and specialized to invent and refine those techniques. Our lab, on the other hand, was centered on creating content and experiences.
We were software and hardware agnostic in our approach. The technology inspired the experiences we designed, but we didn’t limit ourselves to any of the technical restrictions of AR. There were a lot of labs working on solving those problems; the area that was not being explored was content creation and the new types of experiences this technology would allow. We experimented with multiple emerging technologies, combining them in new ways to push beyond the limitations of how AR was traditionally used. If the technology didn’t exist, we collaborated with engineers and scientists to create it.
In 2009, our lab developed SnapDragonAR, one of the first commercially available drag-and-drop software tools to enable nonprogrammers to build experiences and contribute to this new medium, making AR accessible to educators, artists, filmmakers, and a general audience. This created a gateway to content production for makers of all kinds. We expanded the world of AR beyond the technical realm of computer science, with innovators working in AR today continuing down this path.
AR is no longer just about the technology; it’s about defining how we want to live in the real world with this new technology. Creative expression and storytelling is central to this. Congratulations to the Adobe Aero team on leading the way forward. I can’t wait to see what creators of all types will bring to the world.
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