Q: Hey… please introduce yourself to Catchar community.
A: Hi Catchar community! I’m Aidan Wolf, a 23 year old AR developer from the US and most recently creator of Blue Sky Paint, a social AR app that lets you draw on the sky with everyone around you. I’ve been dreaming about AR since I was a kid and have been working in AR for the last 5 years.
Q: Where are you based now?
A: I’m currently nomading for a short time around Europe and Asia, and in Berlin, Germany as we speak.
Q: What are your background and experience?
A: I’ve been making computer games since I was a kid. My background is in games/animation, which I attended school for before dropping out. Thereafter, I got into making phone apps, which led me to make AR apps, which led me to starting my first AR company.
Q: Are you working on some of your own projects / startups or do you have a full time job?
A: I’m currently independent and working on a project for Magic Leap, which I plan to roll into a company by the end of 2019.
Q: How did you start to work with Augmented Reality or Mixed Reality space? What was your first Augmented Reality or Mixed Reality project / product? How did you come up with that idea? What was the launch like?
A: In 2014, my parents were planning to move out of my childhood home, and my very sentimental self wanted a way to connect my family’s history and memories to the actual space, and show the new owners what it was like to live in my house when I did. I immediately started working on Capsule, a location-based social app that let you place memories in real world locations via an AR camera interface. It was my first AR app.
Q: We still remember your Blue Sky Paint app that you have submitted to Catchar, how is it?
A: I’m very proud of Blue Sky Paint. It still gets a decent amount of use but I’ve been hands off since the last update. I think it still has a lot of potential, but I really don’t know what to do with it!
Q: What are you working on right now?
A: I’m working on an app for Magic Leap codenamed Metatron/Project Play. It’s basically my childhood dream come true, and I hope it empowers everyone to intuitively manifest their imaginations. More details later.
Q: What do you think about Mixed Reality space, especially Magic Leap? Do you see the potential there or any problems?
A: I’ve been in this for almost a quarter of my life. Since then, we’ve gone from Nothing to Project Tango to ARKit to Magic Leap in 5 years. I’m extremely hopeful, impressed by the velocity, and really we’re just getting started.
My biggest concern is the hyperbole around AI and AR Cloud and the fear that we’re not as close as we’re led on to think. Everything else can be great, but if we can’t build apps that intuitively understand, relate to, and build off of reality, it doesn’t matter. Else we should just make VR apps.
Q: What are your plans for the near future?
A: Unveil Project Play.
Q: What would you recommend to new XR makers and developers?
A: There’s never been a better time than now to jump into XR. It’s raw, unchallenged, undefined space. That won’t be true in a few years, so think about making your mark now. Also you need to learn 3D, because no matter if you build for desktop, mobile, or web, the future of everything is spatial, and you’ll be at a serious disadvantage if not.
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