Intel® RealSense™ technology holds vast potential for use in applications from gaming to everyday applications like photo and video enhancements.
So you have created an Intel® RealSense™ app that you are ready to share with the world and possibly monetize, or maybe your app is still in the idea stage. There are several places where you can sell and share your app and even get user feedback on it starting from the concept stage. Currently Intel RealSense apps are supported on Windows* 8.1 and Windows 10 with support for Android* coming soon. There are also different cameras to choose from, the short range Intel® RealSense™ camera (F200) for desktops and laptops, the rear-facing R200 for 2-in-1s and tablets, and the new next gen short range camera called the SR300, which is supported on Windows 10. Cameras are available as an external hook-up to existing systems and as built-ins to some PCs with more form factors for all cameras coming later this year.
The market is growing and with it comes the demand for apps from consumers. Besides hosting your app on your own site and handling download and payment yourself, you can also publish Intel RealSense apps on the Steam* or Amazon*. The Intel Developer site also has a place where you can publically post your app to gain exposure. We will talk about those three options in detail during this article.
Steam
Steam is an online store where you can sell your app, but it differs from the traditional store in that the Steam community members decide which apps get published. You post your app in the Steam Greenlight* section and people vote on it: Yes or No thanks/Not interested. If your app ranks high compared to other apps or is gaining momentum quickly, Steam will email you to tell you that your app has been greenlit for publishing. Apps that are not published yet remain in the GreenLight Games section until you remove them. It is recommended that you post your game during concept stage (when submitting there is a submission category to choose from) in order to get feedback from the community and build support for your app. This way you already have a customer base when you post the app in Greenlight. And your app doesn’t have to be a game; there is a general software category as well. Apps submitted on Steam can use any of the Intel RealSense cameras (F200, R200, SR300) and either Windows 8.1 or 10 (per camera capabilities) as the only OS requirement for Steam is that your app must be available in at least Windows. In order to submit your app, you need a valid and non-limited Steam account, meaning that you will have to spent at least 5 USD in the Steam store, and also pay a 100 USD submission fee. You might also want to consider integrating the free Steamworks* SDK into your app (not a requirement). It is available as a C++ API and can add networking, achievements, and in-app purchases.
To submit your app, go to http://steamcommunity.com/greenlight
And for an in-depth FAQ on Steam and submission process go to http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/about/?appid=765§ion=faq
Amazon
Any app that uses any of the three RealSense cameras (F200, R200, SR300) on Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 (per camera capabilities) can also be sold online at Amazon.com. It is free to become a developer and list your software on the Amazon site. They have an indie specific store front where your app can be featured if you are a small independent company or an individual. During the submission process you indicate whether your app is software or a game and the genre. You can also choose whether to provide the customer with a download, a download with key, or only a key/game code when purchasing the app. Currently there is no support for in-app purchases. If you want to sell to all regions, be prepared to fill out information for Amazon.com (United States), Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom), Amazon.fr (France), and Amazon.de (Germany) as separate fields to account for language differences.
To get started and learn more go to http://developer.amazon.com/
Intel
On the Intel® Developer Zone, you can share your Intel RealSense apps with other developers and the Intel® RealSense™ community. You can post your app in any state from initial concept to being published and get user feedback and exposure. Apps cannot be sold here, but you can link to where a user can buy/download it from your own site or elsewhere. You can also find collaborators, gain followers, and get valuable feedback from developers in the community, by joining Intel Developer Mesh.
Window Store*
Under beta right now is support for Universal Windows Platform (UWP) Windows 10 apps for both the R200 and SR300. Apps can be developed using C# and XAML using the Intel® RealSense™ SDK and the appropriate Intel® RealSense™ Depth Camera Manager (DCM) 2.1+ or 3.1+ installed to interface with the Intel RealSense camera. Once out of beta, which is expected to be after the Windows Redstone updates are live in 2017, the UWP RealSense apps can be posted to the Windows Store directly for purchase and download. The process for posting your app there is to first obtain a Windows Store developer account, you can choose between an individual account for 19 USD and a company account for 99 USD (cost varies by country). The company account requires verification that you are authorized to publish apps as that company and gives access to higher level app capabilities (enterpriseAuthentication,sharedUserCertificates,documentsLibrary).
Complete details on the Windows Store app process: https://dev.windows.com/en-us/windows-apps
For more about the UWP and Intel RealSense SDK scope limitations and how to get started, see this article:
Currently the new Unified Dev Center* dashboard does not support desktop apps. There are plans to bring it back in the future, named Project Centennial in the Developer Preview Program to support Win32 and .NET-based applications. Hence Intel RealSense apps developed in C++ and C# are anticipated to be compatible.
More information
To get started on the development process, go to the Intel RealSense Technology Development Zone here:
https://software.intel.com/en-us/realsense/home
About the author
Whitney Foster is a software engineer at Intel in the Software Solutions Group working on scale enabling projects for Android applications and Internet of Things.