Amazon Web Services is ready to let all of its customers start playing with Amazon Sumerian, a tool that helps developers create augmented reality and virtual reality applications.
The cloud leader first unveiled Sumerian at re:Invent 2017 last November, showing off how developers could build 3D images and scenes in a web browser without having to learn sophisticated design and programming techniques once required to accomplish such a task. The service contains hooks to other AWS technologies, such as its Lambda serverless computing service, to build out the remaining parts of an AR/VR app.
It’s not clear how many people are actually using sophisticated AR and VR apps for work or fun, but several companies are investing heavily in the future of what Microsoft calls “mixed reality” in anticipation of a spike in demand. Microsoft showed off several mixed reality scenarios last week at its Build developers conference, and AWS is helping companies like Fidelity Investments build applications for their services on platforms like Oculus Rift and mobile devices like iOS and Android with Amazon Sumerian.
Developers can use any browser that supports WebGL (all major browsers) or WebVR (your mileage may vary) with Amazon Sumerian to create 3D or VR applications. Amazon acquired the 3D web technology behind Sumerian from a Swedish startup called Goo Technologies that went bankrupt in early 2017.
