I have had this idea for a game app for years and I've studied game development since 2014 but never got taught phone apps.  I can use unreal 4 really well as well as animate, model, texture etc using maya. 

I want to make an app that uses the front camera (like snapchat does!)  and to have it pointed at the mouth.. I need object recognition. and enemies to appear on your teeth! you then brush them away.

Where on earth do I even start??   

Hi Bianca,

Phone apps are a bit tricky, because every platform uses a different programming language (Java on Android and Swift or Objective-C on iOS... oh, and C# on Windows lol), and also a different set of APIs ("libraries" of code for doing things like accessing the camera).  However, there are options available that can simplify that a bit:

If you know C#, there's an editor called Xamarin Studio that makes targeting multiple platforms a bit easier.
If you know HTML/JavaScript, you could use something like PhoneGap or Apache Cordova (again, tools for targeting multiple platforms with a single code base).  And actually, since you know Unreal, you might be able to build it for the web, and then put that in one of these.  I don't know Unreal well, but I do know C++, so I know for a fact there's this tool called Emscripten (used under the hood of many games engines) that converts C++ game code into WebAssembly (like JavaScript but faster lol).

Anyway, these are kind of over-simplifications, and I realize I just threw like a gazillion new tools at you, but if nothing else researching these should help you get past the "don't know where to start" phase.

HTH

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Phone apps are a bit tricky, because every platform uses a different programming language (Java on Android and Swift or Objective-C on iOS... oh, and C# on Windows lol)

Just for completeness it might be worth mentioning that you can also use Kotlin on Android. And of course you can use C/C++ on both Android and iOS, which can allow for more shared code, but of course can make things more difficult in other ways.

Generally speaking, using an existing cross-platform framework would probably be easiest, but I don't know if there are such frameworks that could handle the specific idea in question (I'm not saying there aren't - I don't know either way).

On 5/18/2019 at 3:11 PM, Bianca Maistre said:

Where on earth do I even start??   

Welcome to the land of the new. You are on an open space in the middle of a green unexplored country. Some faint traces of paths in every direction are visible in the grass. Further away all around you, you can see houses and people working on the land. You are standing next to a pole with signs in every direction with unknown names. You don't seem to be able to pinpoint your location at the maps you collected since 2014 currently. You can go North, East, South, and West.

Indeed it happens that you arrive at something new. It happened now, and it will happen again, as computer technology is moving rapidly, turning all known things (seemingly) upside down every now and then.

Don't despair, just start experimenting. Spend a few days reading what exists in the new country. What tools exist, what do they claim to aim for, what do people say about the tools?

Then pick a phone, pick some tool, and try it. Just exploring, do you like the tool? does it work? is the documentation and the Internet helpful with questions? happy with any result? If not, find a next tool to try and repeat the experiment.

After a few rounds, you'll start to see patterns in what the tools do, so you can group them. You also will start to understand if your current tools cover your needs, so you can focus new tool hunts on the missing parts. Eventually, you'll start to get to grips with the domain, and you can start thinking about the application you want to make for real.

Happy exploring, have fun doing it !

On 5/18/2019 at 2:11 PM, Bianca Maistre said:

I have had this idea for a game app for years and I've studied game development since 2014 but never got taught phone apps.  I can use unreal 4 really well as well as animate, model, texture etc using maya. 

I want to make an app that uses the front camera (like snapchat does!)  and to have it pointed at the mouth.. I need object recognition. and enemies to appear on your teeth! you then brush them away.

Where on earth do I even start??   

Please please make this app.

The problems we've had with getting kids to brush their teeth aren't trivial for some, of course kids would rather play, or do anything else! Making it a game does help. I really hope you do manage to make this, and make it a success!

Good luck!

3 hours ago, Brain said:

Please please make this app.

The problems we've had with getting kids to brush their teeth aren't trivial for some, of course kids would rather play, or do anything else! Making it a game does help. I really hope you do manage to make this, and make it a success!

Good luck!

Thank so much

I've been looking at TONS of tutorials on youtube about ARKit facial recognition and none of them mention Teeth... am I better off going with object recognition? rather than facial recognition?