Home iPhone App Trends: Music, Health and Augmented Reality

iPhone App Trends: Music, Health and Augmented Reality

This weekend, developers, UI designers and testers combined forces to share ideas and collaborate at the third annual iPhone Dev Camp. The event encourages individuals at all levels to continue to stretch the development boundaries of the iPhone and iPod touch. The event’s Hackathon competition offers an exhibition of attendee projects and is a showcase of some of the industry’s brightest innovators. Below are some of the latest trends amongst those innovators.

Augmented Reality: When it was first released, iPhone developers were ecstatic to gain access to Map Kit – a framework that allowed them to utilize Google maps for their applications. Thanks to a team at today’s iPhone Dev Camp, developers are about to gain access to a whole new world of possibilities. Chris Haseman, Zac White, Charles Ruelle, Arshad Tayyeb and Sid Gabriel Hubbard released an Augmented Reality Kit for the iPhone. The user interface library won the Hackathon event’s “Best Open Source Project” award and offers developers a chance to build on top of a library for augmented reality applications. Some of the products that can be made possible by the kit include new altered reality games and location-based informational services.

Assistive and Health-Related Technology: Created by Aramys Miranda, Hernan Pelassini and Dan Raju, iSign is a simple iPhone application created to help those with hearing challenges communicate via their iPhone. The group leverages the device’s touch screen and employs modified American sign language to produce voice outputs. In this way, members can use the device to communicate to those with little or no knowledge of sign language. This application won the Hackathon award for “Best Accessibility Application”. Meanwhile, Chief Medical Officer gives patients iPhone access to their Google Health files. Created over the weekend by Bess Ho, Myk Klemme, Jen McCabe and Chip Vanek, the application will allow users to gather their medical records and prescriptions in one place. This is particularly useful for medical emergencies. The group plans to release the application as an open source project upon completion.

Mobile Music Production: Nettwerk recording artist BT’s Sonifi is by far one of the most sophisticated iPhone music applications available. The product is a cross between Indaba’s flash-based audio sequencer and Yamaha’s touch instrument, the Tenori-On. While the Tenori-On retails at $1000, the Sonifi iPhone application is available in the App Store for $4.99 and allows users to mix via the touch interface on the iPod touch or iPhone. Some of the unique features of this product include a touch interface with 4 channel arrangement mapping, reactive visuals, a collaborative group mixing mode and “Stutter Edit” – a feature that allows users to shake their device for audio feedback. In the past, electronic artists have experimented with a modified NIntendo Wii remote for an accelerometer-prompted dj experience, Sonifi is the first gesture-based iPhone mixer.

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