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iPhone App Trends: Music, Health and Augmented Reality

Written by Dana Oshiro / August 2, 2009 10:44 PM / 5 Comments

iphone_music_jul09.jpgThis weekend, developers, UI designers and testers combined forces to share ideas and collaborate at the third annual iPhone Dev Camp. The event encourages individuals at all levels to continue to stretch the development boundaries of the iPhone and iPod touch. The event's Hackathon competition offers an exhibition of attendee projects and is a showcase of some of the industry's brightest innovators. Below are some of the latest trends amongst those innovators.

Augmented Reality: When it was first released, iPhone developers were ecstatic to gain access to Map Kit - a framework that allowed them to utilize Google maps for their applications. Thanks to a team at today's iPhone Dev Camp, developers are about to gain access to a whole new world of possibilities. Chris Haseman, Zac White, Charles Ruelle, Arshad Tayyeb and Sid Gabriel Hubbard released an Augmented Reality Kit for the iPhone. The user interface library won the Hackathon event's "Best Open Source Project" award and offers developers a chance to build on top of a library for augmented reality applications. Some of the products that can be made possible by the kit include new altered reality games and location-based informational services.

Assistive and Health-Related Technology: Created by Aramys Miranda, Hernan Pelassini and Dan Raju, iSign is a simple iPhone application created to help those with hearing challenges communicate via their iPhone. The group leverages the device's touch screen and employs modified American sign language to produce voice outputs. In this way, members can use the device to communicate to those with little or no knowledge of sign language. This application won the Hackathon award for "Best Accessibility Application". Meanwhile, Chief Medical Officer gives patients iPhone access to their Google Health files. Created over the weekend by Bess Ho, Myk Klemme, Jen McCabe and Chip Vanek, the application will allow users to gather their medical records and prescriptions in one place. This is particularly useful for medical emergencies. The group plans to release the application as an open source project upon completion.

Mobile Music Production: Nettwerk recording artist BT's Sonifi is by far one of the most sophisticated iPhone music applications available. The product is a cross between Indaba's flash-based audio sequencer and Yamaha's touch instrument, the Tenori-On. While the Tenori-On retails at $1000, the Sonifi iPhone application is available in the App Store for $4.99 and allows users to mix via the touch interface on the iPod touch or iPhone. Some of the unique features of this product include a touch interface with 4 channel arrangement mapping, reactive visuals, a collaborative group mixing mode and "Stutter Edit" - a feature that allows users to shake their device for audio feedback. In the past, electronic artists have experimented with a modified NIntendo Wii remote for an accelerometer-prompted dj experience, Sonifi is the first gesture-based iPhone mixer.


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  1. Well we werent there at the dev camp but have been doing hackathons for our health related iPhone APP too. At TrialX our goal is to help patients find the most relevant clinical trials and we allow them to use their Google Health, Microsoft HealthVault PHR to do so or even use our Twitter APP.

    And yesterday we released the demo of the upcoming TrialX Mobile platform . As part of the mobile initiative, we are developing an iPhone App to find clinical trials that can be used by both doctors and patients. With just a few "taps" users can search for a trial, share with patients/friends/family and call the trial investigators. The App allows searching for trials by different parameters and filter the location by the users current location.

    We are going to release the app this month and will be building (hopefully) useful location based features.

    Posted by: Sarah Casey | August 3, 2009 12:33 AM



  2. Wow! These are some really cool apps. It will be exciting to see and follow the iphone apps coming out in the months ahead with 3.0 functionality. It doesnt appear many are using push notifications yet..

    Posted by: iphone app developer | August 3, 2009 6:01 AM



  3. Congrats to Bess Ho and team on Chief Medical Officer. This application was built using Appcelerator Titanium and we're excited for such a great app and to have sponsored iPhoneDevCamp!

     Posted by: Jeff Author Profile Page | August 6, 2009 5:51 PM



  4. I recently came accross your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

    Posted by: pirott Author Profile Page | December 5, 2009 1:43 AM



  5. From an iphone developer standpoint this is extremely innovative. I am anxiously anticipating its release of augmented reality. Some may say that it seems completely useless but the innovation alone is what really excites me. It just shows the intensive direction that iphone application development is headed towards!

    Posted by: rick | February 3, 2010 2:00 PM



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