Bringing Augmented Reality to the Android Experience
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ARCore is Google's platform for creating augmented reality experiences on mobile devices. Using various different APIs, ARCore lets your phone understand its surroundings, sense the world around it, and even interact with external data. Some of these additional APIs are also available across Android and iOS for enabling shared augmented experiences on both phones.
The main goal behind ARCore is to provide a smart phone environment where you can experience augmented reality in a totally new way. Since the days of Magic Jack, which used a webcam to detect objects within the real world, there's been some improvement. This was followed by Project Glass, which similarly used a camera to detect and display objects in the real world. However, both of those devices were quite limited in their functionality. ARCore marks the next step forward in this direction by offering fully functioning, high resolution cameras and lenses on supported devices.
By bringing together the power of your camera, GPS, and other standard Android device sensors, you'll be able to put together a comprehensive and highly accurate virtual environment. When you use an app, called an AR Carrier, it displays the location and context of the real world around it on your mobile display. By tapping on one of the buttons on your device, you'll be able to bring up a map of where you are located in the real world (based on your GPS co-ordinates, if it has any). You can then use the provided controls on the screen of your arcore Android phone to navigate through the real world, while using your eye motion tracking sensors to take note of your surroundings. If you're looking for some really fun and exciting augmented reality apps, check out the Google Play Store today.
