Hi there, and thanks for reading this blog about our project. First of all, let us introduce ourselves, our names are Dan Zaitsev & Andrew Bekh and we are makers and founders of CatchAR. We have decided to create this side project to grow and build AR community and adopt AR technology into our world much faster.
Problem
The latest trends and updates allow AR market to grow more significantly, thanks to different companies and technologies, such as: Apple with ARKit, Google with ARCore, Magic Leap, HoloLens. However, we still see that adoption of AR apps, lenses and projects is a huge problem. Especially, if you are an individual maker or agency which develops custom and time-sensitive AR campaigns or lenses.
A further major problem lies in creation of AR projects based on 3d party apps (scanners) and AR editors & builders. On the one hand, it can help you to minimize the costs, but on the other hand, it can cause a stumbling block regarding promotion of your AR projects to the end-users. Because in this case you have to promote not only your AR project, but also the parent AR app where your project is based. A lot of customers and brands are not ready to spend money on this type of promotion.
We have worked in different Augmented Reality companies and startups for more than 5 years. Based on this experience, we can also note that education of end-users on how to use AR projects and apps is the next big challenge. Especially, if we are talking about marker based Augmented Reality experiences, when users need to scan target images to unlock AR content. In 80% of cases users just don’t know which target image they need to scan, not to mention how to do it…
Our solution
All these cases have pushed us to create our new side project / startup — Catchar. Our primary mission is to build a global xR community (Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality). We decided to start from an ability to share and discover AR projects, apps and lenses. With Catchar Augmented Reality developers, makers and companies can share their own or 3rd party projects. Submission of AR projects is free and through a handy form. Since we are building the proper AR showcase and directory, all submitted projects are going through moderation process. In our roadmap and plans we have lots of new fancy features.
AR categories that we present
We intend to present the following different AR categories, such as: AR games, editors and builders, entertainment AR apps, lenses and filters, AR for food & drinks, AR apps and projects for education, AR projects that help with furnishing and architecture.
Please note that we don’t publish AR studios or companies, but we allow them to publish their projects.
AR tech stack that we follow
We love to see and approve AR apps and projects that work based on Apple ARKit and Google ARCore. Because we see that these tech stacks have a huge potential for growth in the next years. We are also looking forward to using and sharing AR apps and projects for Magic Leap and Microsoft HoloLens. Mixed Reality is coming very fast and we would like our project to be a part of it. Sure, you are welcome to submit AR projects that work based on target images (marker) by using Vuforia, Wikitude or your own AR engine.
Our roadmap and plans
Currently we are trying to fix some existing problems to improve performance and make our side project more stable. Meanwhile, we continue to work on new features. Shortly we would like to release:
- ✔️ Own blog
- ✔️ List of xR developer
- ? Extended profiles for xR developers
- ? Log in and Sign up
- ? Changelog and roadmap
…and many more
In the long term perspective our goal is to build a global hub and community of xR developers. In addition, developers, makers and startups can share and promote their own xR projects, apps and lenses (similar to the AppStore). By doing so, they will get their first or beta users.
For users it’s a perfect opportunity to jump into Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality world. Discover, rate and download best AR apps, lenses and projects.
Thanks for taking the time to read our blog. Hope you liked it. We would greatly appreciate it if you could share information about our project with your friends.
Cheers,
Dan and Andrew
Image credit: Hyper-Reality
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