Get Your Arqball Spin On!
Have you heard of Arqball Spin? No, it’s not a new kind of extreme sport – it’s the latest app that’s taken the iOS platform by storm. Considered by its creators to be more than just a bit of fun, Arqball Spin can be implemented by businesses, entrepreneurs and online traders with their iPads or iPhones to show more realistic images of products online – it’s also massively fun to use. But what is Arqball Spin, you ask?
Well, if you’re sick of seeing photographs that don’t show an image from every angle (pfft!) then Arqball Spin is going to grip you. The app, which is free on iOS, allows users to create high-quality 3D models of any object they choose to. Your iProduct’s camera will a series of images of the object from different angle, and the app’s software puts them together to create what is, effectively, a 3D model. Of course, you can take these photographs by walking around an object slowly and trying to hold the camera as steady as possible, but the app’s creators have also released an Arqball stage to place your object on, which rotates slowly, and will ensure a much smoother ‘spin’.
Anyway, your ‘spin’ will be more than just a rotating image; once it’s uploaded to the net, viewers will be able to drag the image around, looking at it from each angle at their will. This isn’t exactly revolutionary technology; it’s more than likely you’ll have seen similar things before on the net, but this is the first time it’s been brought to the public on a silver platter. You don’t need anything more than a phone and a steady hand (or a stage), and you’re good to go.
Once you’ve captured your model, the Arqball doesn’t stop there; it also offers plenty of image editing features so that you can crop and adjust your ‘spin’ to suit whatever needs you have. Brightness, contrast and saturation are all adjustable, so you can take a little pride in your work, knowing the stage wasn’t the only thing putting in some effort. You can also add annotations to your spin, so that viewers almost get a kind of ‘guided tour’ of the object.
Once you’ve taken your ‘spin’, it’s uploaded to the Arqball website, which hosts it, and from there it’s easy to embed it into your blog, website or forum post via HTML – so getting it out and about around the net is great. You can also post a simple link to the spin via Twitter or other social networking sites. All in all, the Arqball guys have done an impressive job of making Arqball accessible and easy to use; whether you just want to play around and show your spins to your friends, or whether you’re an up-and-coming entrepreneur looking for the best way to showcase your talents – Arqball Spin is a pretty smart concept.
Fandroids will also be pleased to hear that, though Arqball Spin is currently an iOS-only affair, its creators are planning versions for other mobile platforms, as well as DLSR cameras in the pipeline. If you’re really interested in getting your hands on Arqball, you might want to head over to their page on Kickstarter, an internet site dedicated to finding funds for new companies and ventures, where you can get your hands on a stage for around $60 – which is $20 less than the stage will be selling for once it’s released to the hoi polloi.
The app is still in its early days – hence why it has its own page on Kickstarter – and so it’s difficult to tell whether it’s really going to make it big. It’s doubtful that Arqball will sell out to some multi-billion dollar company within a year of its fruition – yes, we’re looking at you, Instagram – but it would be nice to see these guys do well with Arqball. It seems to be an app born out of genuine passion and geekery, which in our eyes counts for a lot.
The creators’ notion that Arqball is going to take off with companies and inventors is probably quite accurate, though you can’t help wondering whether the app’s simplicity and ease of use could mean that bigger retailers like Amazon might forgo Arqball in favour of more traditional, complex software that they already have their mitts on. Still, only time will tell – for my part, at least, I’m impressed – and I’ll be downloading it as soon as it reaches Android, even if only so I can create 3D models of my cat.
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