The iPhone 8 Will Transform This Augmented Reality Makeup Demo

The iPhone 8 is going to make makeup and beauty tutorials more interactive. A new app from developers ModiFace uses the new tools found in iOS 11, set to launch this fall, to superimpose makeup onto the user’s face through the camera feed. It’s an impressive demonstration, but it could work a whole lot better on the iPhone 8, Apple’s next smartphone set to launch this fall rumored to include new depth sensing capabilities.

“Users start with trying on different beauty products on their own video through ModiFace’s iOS app,” the company told 9to5Mac on Tuesday. “From there, once a selection of products have been made, they can then instantly see their products, product reviews, and product simulations on their own photo rendered as a virtual beauty counter. Users can walk close to the counter to zoom and view specific product visualizations or features. For example, to see the details of a lipstick, they simple walk closer to their photo and move their devices closer to a virtual lip.”

For ModiFace, the company plans to speak with a number of partners about testing virtual beauty counters in the coming weeks. The technology has the potential to lead to an app where users can preview makeup on their face before trying it on themselves, transforming YouTube tutorials and the like with a new level of interactivity.

ARKit, the developer technology used in the demonstration, can superimpose virtual objects onto the real world with ease. When iOS 11 was first announced at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers’ Conference in June, the company gave developers a pre-release version of the software to bring their creations to life. It’s all part of CEO Tim Cook’s big plan to push augmented reality into the mainstream.

“I am so excited about it, I just want to yell out and scream,” Cook said in a June interview. “The first step in making it a mainstream kind of experience is to put it in the operating system. We’re building it into iOS 11, opening it to ­developers—and unleashing the creativity of millions of people. Even we can’t predict what’s going to come out.”

Some of the first ideas demonstrated include a virtual tape measure, a virtual Tesla Model 3 to preview in a garage, and a restaurant menu app to preview food. But ModiFace’s demonstration shows this is not the upper limit of what’s possible with augmented reality. With the iPhone 8 expected to include a 3D laser scanner to improve these experiences, it may not be long before we see even more ambitious ideas.