A few weeks ago, the author of Homerise posted a link to his application. I thought the concept was great, so I finally got to play with it this weekend.

My first impression was the lack of luster. The application did not feel polished and I had problems with the fact that I always had to reposition my "marker" after I created it. This turned out to be one of the best features of the app, but I didn't appreciate it at the time.

I wanted something that felt more polished and I came across the Devices app. It also offers AR support and certainly felt more polished, however, this turned out to be just a short-term gain as it gives you no clue as to where the marker will be placed (they call them controllers) in 3D space. You can just delete them and recreate them and pray that this is the place you want and not 2 in front of your face or something stupid.

The second problem with the devices is that it seems to be much harder to do the initial recognition, but I feel that it is a function of ARKit and not of the applications themselves.

This may sound silly, but the only thing I like more about Homerise is that you go to your devices as a remote control (horizontal phone) instead of vertical.

My wife has tried both and she definitely likes the remote to feel better. In addition, switching to the black screen is a good visual indicator that the app has recognized its location and is ready for action.

There are things that none of the applications do and I think it might be helpful. For example, none of the applications know the walls. Because I have a lot of devices, I ended up choosing not to include certain ones, because, from certain perspectives, less important devices would confuse sight.

Also, none of them accept the increase when placing the markers.

Although I'm not sure if it's possible, having some sort of confidence interval to let you know how well your phone is likely to detect its location if you close and reopen the app you're from. I need to go back to a certain location to get it up and running.

None of the apps sync the marker locations between family members, so you have to place them manually for each device.

Overall, I really like the concept of using AR to control devices, and the author Homerise is very receptive here, so I have roots for him and I hope to see him evolve!