Protocols of immersive web: WebXR APIs and the AR Cloud

The aim of this article is to describe and explain the role of WebXR APIs which nowadays are used to develop XR (virtual and augmented reality) applications, enjoyable by users through the browsers in the so-called Immersive Web. Starting from a general definition of APIs as “protocological objects”, we will firstly highlight the contractual and inter-social nature of these interfaces, in order to understand how their design by a company determines how the users interact with the information and the functionalities provided and, finally, with the real world through applications developed with such APIs; these provide a set of operational possibilities through which the user can augment the physical surrounding world, and therefore constitute the result of a negotiation among the user and the developers of the application. Finally, the conclusions will consider the fervent experimentation that characterizes the search for drastic solutions, like the AR Cloud, where the promise of a physically and digitally fully interconnected world grows up in a similar way to the one that saw the birth of the Internet, in a collaborative and open way, in contrast with development kits released and owned by companies.