Apple's headquarters has been a destination for fans from around the world. For the new campus, a dedicated Visitor Center building was created housing a brushed aluminum architectural model of Apple Park. Most who come to the Visitor Center want to see the ring building they’ve heard so much about. However, only a portion of it is visible. The Exhibition provides visitors a way to digitally explore the new campus. Using an iPad running an AR app, they can float over the landscape, get down low to look through windows, or follow cars along the street. The roofs of buildings can be raised, allowing users to pinch-zoom in for a glimpse of tiny employees at work. Visitors are even shown what can’t be seen: Ambient airflow across the campus for natural cooling and solar energy captured by roof panels used to light the campus at night.

The centerpiece of the Exhibition space is the installation of a 16ft x 22ft brushed aluminum sculpture that models the terrain and structures of the Apple Park campus. Visitors are handed an iPad Pro running a pre-installed AR app. The abstract design of the model allows details of the campus to be expressed through Augmented Reality. The visitor sees a metal sculpture through the iPad camera, then suddenly the image is populated with thousands of species-accurate trees rendered in full detail seamlessly optimized for distance. The campus is alive with people, bicyclists, and buses which adhere to real traffic routes and stops. Exterior and interior building details derive from architectural CAD files.

The entire experience of Apple’s technology itself is presented in a novel way. The application approaches the edge of what’s possible on tablet hardware utilizing computer vision technology and modern real-time rendering. It was a remarkable challenge to achieve the level of visual detail desired while rendering in real-time on a tablet device. A custom approach to optimization was required to dial in assets to maximum quality while minimizing the negative impact to performance.

The aluminum model is nearly featureless to a camera, requiring a bespoke advanced vision technology solution to evaluate the model and the camera perspective from thousands of angles per second in order to acquire a fit and initialize the AR tracking. Visitors are able to engage the AR experience just by pointing the iPad camera at the model. They can move around the perimeter, leaning in or stepping back to alter their perspective. Interactive controls allow users to change the time of day, causing the sun to dynamically rise and set over the hills surrounding Silicon Valley.

The Visitor Center officially opened to the public on November 17th, 2017 and has averaged over 40K weekly visitors. It is currently accessible free of charge. Since it is experiential, it’s effect is best seen in person. Visitors exclaim in delight when first engaging with the AR app. Small groups huddle close around an iPad for a shared experience discovering and pointing out details to each other. Apple’s technology is used to bring the AR experience of Apple Park to life. Visitors use an Apple iPad running Apple’s iOS ARKit-based software. The design of the exhibition, from the physical brushed aluminum model to the digital content layer and the seamless user experience, are aligned to demonstrate how technology can be used to create surprise and delight.