Quirky App Of The Day: Explode Objects In Your Pictures With AR EnergyBall
AR EnergyBall (Free) by PSOFT is a photography app that lets you add explosions to your pictures with a wave of your hand. By rapidly bringing your hand close to the home button on your iDevice, you can produce fireballs on the screen that lock onto a target and explode. Do not actually hit your iDevice. There’s no need to actually touch it. It’s all about augmented reality technology.
So, how does this work? You’re not touching the screen. You’re also not waving your hand over the front-facing camera. You’re aiming your hand at the home button. Well, kiddos, I did some research, and I think I found the answer. The information in the app description attributes this ability to the Z System which is able to detect your life force. After quite a few searches on Google, I’m fairly confident I found the sensor that makes this app possible. All of you tech people who already know all about it can sit down and play a game while the average iDevice user learns something new.
There’s a proximity sensor in your iDevice that emits an electromagnetic beam. This beam tells your phone whether there’s anything nearby without the object actually having to touch the phone. It’s what allows you to put your phone by your face and not have your cheek put your call on mute or speaker by accident. As soon as the phone senses that your face is close by, it disables the touch features of the phone.
When you’re bringing your hand to the speakers and microphone area of the phone very quickly, you’re messing with the proximity sensor, and the app receives the instructions to create a fireball. The app description actually tells you that if you aren’t able to shoot the fireballs, then you need to make sure that your speakers and microphone area and unobstructed. If it still doesn’t work, then you can contact them, and they will investigate the problem. Hooray for a proximity sensor.
Instead of making the app less amazing because of the technical explanation of how it does its job, I’m even more impressed with it. I love technology, and integrating a unique part of the iDevice makes this app pretty awesome. With a generous nod to the anime series Dragon Ball in their title page and even the premise of the app, anime fans will be proud to show of their skills by shooting fireballs. There’s something for everyone. Well, unless you hate explosions.
There are in-app purchases for different types of blasts that you can use. The fireball is free, but other features like the energy wave, spirit ball, and disc cutter are all paid. Yes, I know. These developers obviously love Dragon Ball. All these features are attacks that come from the series.
AR EnergyBall is available in the App Store for the awesome price of FREE!