Uptil now Google’s efforts to bring Augmented Reality to the masses have been largely curtailed by the lack of hardware support. Google’s AR Project Tango has just a handful of devices that support it. Now, with Apple’s plans to focus on AR with the upcoming iPhone 8, Google knows these baby steps won’t get it anywhere. Hence, the Mountain View-based tech firm has announced ARCore, a new software for developers to build AR apps on Android. So, what’s the difference between Tango and ARCore? Well, with ARCore, you don’t need additional hardware. This opens up the door of wide-scale deployment of AR into the current Android ecosystem.
ARCore though built on Tango is no more restricted to few devices, instead, it will be able to work on millions of Android devices. It’s about time Google did this. With the arrival of iOS 11, there will be a mass adoption of AR and ARCore is Google’s answer to it.
ARCore uses three key technologies to make Augmented reality happen.
Motion tracking gives the phone 3D sense.
Environmental understanding allows the phone to sense flat surfaces
Light estimation gives phone sense of light.
Google in a blog post also revealed that ARCore will work on devices running Android 7.0 Nougat and above. The firm is working closely with the likes of Samsung, Huawei, LG to bring the exciting tech to 100 million devices. Also, they have already released SDK preview for Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy S8. Additionally, prototype browsers, as well as tools like Block and Tilt, have been released for developers to pave the way for the next gen of AR enabled apps.
