Amazon Sumerian Now Generally Available

Amazon Sumerian Now Generally Available

Amazon Web Services is finally ready to let its customers use Amazon Sumerian, this product helps developers create augmented reality and virtual reality applications.

Sumerian is the fastest and easiest way to create VR, AR, and 3D experiences

AWS first unveiled Sumerian at Re: Invent 2017 last November.

Sumerian interfaces with other Amazon Web Services such as Amazon Lex, Polly, AWS Lambda, AWS IoT and Amazon DynamoDB, to build out the remaining parts of an AR/VR app.

Sumerian works on multiple platforms. VR or AR apps created through Sumerian will work in browsers that support WebGL or WebVR as well as on VR devices like Oculus Rift, HTC Vive Pro or devices that support ARKit and ARCore.

Amazon Sumerian lets you create and run virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and 3D applications quickly and easily without requiring any specialized programming or 3D graphics expertise.

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.

Kyle Roche, the GM of AWS Sumerian, describes it, the company saw a gap in the market between the rise of new VR, AR and 3D tech, and a huge pool of organizations that might want to use that technology.

“We are targeting enterprises who don’t have the talent in-house,” he said. Tackling new tech can sometimes be “too overwhelming, and this is one way of getting inspiration or prototypes going. Sumerian is a stable way to bootstrap ideas and start conversations. There is a huge business opportunity here.”

Adam Schouela, the VP of Fidelity Labs, has said that the financial services giant has been working on a range of potential applications, including solutions to train its customer relations teams, ways of visualising financial modelling, and services for its customers to discover and use Fidelity’s services.

“What we try to do is look at emerging tech and rapidly build prototypes for Fidelity and the financial services industry,” he told TechCrunch.  We’ve done a lot of work in the voice interfaces and user interfaces with AR and VR. When we saw what Sumerian was providing and potential integration between voice interfaces and VR, we thought this was a great opportunity. With voice interfaces, one of the great use cases is when your eyes and hands are otherwise busy. With VR, it’s stuck to face and you can’t see and your hands are busy so voice happens to be a great way of interacting with virtual environments.”

Below is the link to one of Fidelity’s services:

Sumerian does not require specialized expertise and you can design scenes directly from your browser. So log in and have a play and see what you think.