Zappar, the world's leading augmented reality platform and creative studio, announced that their best-in-class computer vision libraries are now available as SDKs for a wide variety of platforms and languages. The innovation enables developers to create compelling AR for both app and web environments using Unity, JavaScript, Three.js, A-Frame, and C/C++, further democratising access to the technology.

"The release of Universal AR is a landmark moment for us,” said Connell Gauld, Co-Founder and CTO at Zappar. “Since we first released our WebAR offering last year we have been excited about the browser as a medium for delivering AR to the widest number of users as possible, and now for the first time, content developers can utilise our computer vision in whichever platforms and creative tools they are most familiar with. These two innovations are a great leap forward in Zappar's mission to democratise augmented reality."

Universal AR is the first unified SDK to provide developers with all three of the major AR tracking types: face, image, and instant world tracking, for access in mobile web browsers. These three tracking types are used in the vast majority of AR experiences, and now for the first time developers have the ability to choose whichever tracking type they would like, without having to use any additional third party libraries.

In particular, Zappar are excited about the potential for developers to create content with Three.js, a JavaScript 3D platform that continues to explode in popularity. The library had 375,454 downloads last week on the npm registry. With over a million developers every month trying out the package, it offers great potential for widespread development of browser-based AR experiences using Universal AR.

Zappar have also provided a helpful set of example repositories and bootstrap projects to enable developers to get started as quickly as possible creating their own experiences. Importantly, hosting and publishing is integrated with the ZapWorks Content Management System (CMS). Licensing is included in each tier of ZapWorks plan, with self-hosting of WebAR through a custom domain available for those on the Enterprise tier.

Consumer and enterprise demand for AR delivered via the web will continue to grow; according to Gartner, 100 million shoppers will browse in AR by the end of 2020. Zappar’s Universal AR SDK offers developers unparalleled flexibility when creating world-class AR experiences, working with the tools they feel most comfortable with while allowing for greater versatility when publishing their content.

Early access partner VRCraftworks have already been testing Universal AR with their projects. "Our early testing of Universal AR for three.js has yielded some really impressive results, in particular, face tracking through the browser.” said Peter Maddalena, Managing Director at VR Craftworks. “I am excited by the flexibility of choosing a platform based on what a specific project requires, whilst being able to work more often with Zappar who has always impressed me with not only the quality of their products but their commitment to fair pricing and developer support.”

Universal AR comes at a time where there are billions of connected devices in the market, yet they are split between iOS and Android. Developers want (and need) a unified solution that lets them build once and deploy their creations everywhere, without being restricted to one operating system or platform. Universal AR provides the widest possible accessibility and cross-platform reach that’s sorely needed in today’s rapidly changing world of AR campaign creation.

Universal AR is now available to everyone, with the following features:

• Build WebAR experiences using world, face and image tracking using the most popular open-source JavaScript libraries, including three.js;
• Build cross-platform Unity applications for native apps and WebAR;
• The only WebAR SDK that offers face, image and world tracking APIs;
• Website hosting included with a ZapWorks plan. Self-hosting and custom domain options available;
• ZapWorks offers the most competitive engagement rates;
• Low-level API wrappers for C/C++ and JavaScript available;
• Universal AR will support Three.JS, JavaScript and A-Frame at launch. Support for Unity and C++ will be available in the coming weeks.
• Developers can get started at zap.works/universal-ar, with libraries available to download directly or install from NPM.

Zappar’s award-winning technology enables brands, agencies and license partners across the world to deploy innovative, customizable market-leading AR and WebAR solutions to the mobile web and native apps. Partners include Nestle, 7-Eleven, Beiersdorf, Kellogg’s, Rovio, The Coca-Cola Company, and PwC among others. Brands have found that the technology enables extraordinary stats such as lengthy dwell times over two minutes and an engagement rate of over 40 per cent once inside the application, demonstrating the deliverable impact of AR for businesses.