Universal Everything, a UK-based digital art practice and design studio, has debuted a free augmented reality^[1] app called Super You^[2]. It uses cutting-edge body tracking technology to transform the human body using different AR costumes.

However, unlike other AR apps, Super You doesn’t offer passive immersion. It brings you AR costumes that respond to movement in real-time.

“This project combines our fascination for mixing timeless figurative representation with emerging technologies to create new forms of soulful digital expressions. By democratizing the artwork through releasing this app to the public, we look forward to seeing the crazy, funny, inventive unexpected results,” said Matt Pyke, founder of Universal Everything, in a press release shared with ARPost.

Transforming in Augmented Reality

Universal Everything created Super You in Unity, using Apple’s ARKit 3.5. They developed it as part of an art series called Future Human, which is their exploration of artificial forms.

Super You features the latest in body tracking technology. This makes it capable of transforming the human body using different costumes in AR. With an iPhone or an iPad, you simply have to point the camera at the subject. You can then choose among 11 costumes by swiping on your screen.

Once you’ve made a selection, you can watch your subject transform into their character. Moreover, you can see them maintain their appearance in AR as they move around. They can do these transformations while strolling around the park or dancing around the bedroom.

As mentioned, unlike many AR apps^[4], Super You doesn’t offer passive immersive experiences. Instead, it responds to movement in real-time, allowing your subject to maintain their costume as they move. The app is responsive to the subject’s clothes. That means the app will match the AR costume to the clothes that the subject is wearing. As the technology evolves, the app could be responsive to other factors such as voice or the seasons.