Google is getting serious about augmented reality and wants to make it as hardware agnostic as possible. This is their second foray, Daydream was the first and it required very specific equipment for phone companies to make it work, but it failed to get any traction. ARCore has just been released and the development platform and it is compatible with the 2016/2017 Pixels, Galaxy S7/S7 Edge/S8/S8+, LG V30/V30+, ASUS ZenFone AR, and OnePlus 5. More devices from LG, Samsung, Huawei, Motorola, Xiaomi, HMD/Nokia, and others will be added in the near future.
ARCore enables developers to build apps that can understand your environment and place objects and information in it. Google Lens uses your camera to help make sense of what you see, whether that’s automatically creating contact information from a business card before you lose it, or soon being able to identify the breed of a cute dog you saw in the park.
What are the main differences between Google and Apples AR platforms? ARKit focuses on large horizontal and vertical planes — think floors, tables and walls — ARCore is just thinking about surfaces in general so if you want to put an AR creation into the palm of your hand or onto the side of a pillow you can, while you’re of course also able to put something onto the wall or floor.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
