Google ARCore brings Augmented Reality to Android phones, without Project Tango

Google ARCore is a new Android augmented reality platform that the company has announced for its mobile operating system. ARCore's announcement comes at a time when Apple has already announced the ARKit for iOS 11

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Google ARCore brings Augmented Reality experience to all of Android.

Google ARCore is a new Android augmented reality platform that the company has announced for its mobile operating system. ARCore’s announcement comes at a time when Apple has already announced the ARKit for iOS 11 and it will be a significant part of the new upgrade for iPhones and iPads. Google’s blogpost explains that ARCore is a software development kit (SDK) for developers and it will provide them with a range of tools, APIs, etc to help deliver the AR experience on their apps for Android smartphones.

Google says the ARCore SDK will bring “augmented reality capabilities to existing and future Android phones.” This is a crucial difference and divergence from Project Tango where smartphones required special sensors and hardware along with the software capabilities for the Augmented Reality experience. For Android developers, the ARCore kit is open to use.

The blogpost from Google explains the ARCore SDK is built on the work the company has done around Project Tango for the last three years. The difference is this works without the need for extra hardware. For Google, this means it can ‘scale’ AR across Android ecosystem, without this being limited to a couple of special devices.

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The post adds, “ARCore will run on millions of devices, starting today with the Pixel and Samsung’s S8, running 7.0 Nougat and above. We’re targeting 100 million devices at the end of the preview. We’re working with manufacturers like Samsung, Huawei, LG, ASUS and others to make this possible with a consistent bar for quality and high performance.”

So what does ARCore work on? It works with Java/OpenGL, Unity and Unreal and relies on three main features. These are motion tracking (which uses the phone’s camera to observe points in the room), environmental understanding (Google says ARCore can detect horizontal surfaces) and light estimation in the room to light up the virtual objects and make them seem even more real.

Google also says it is working “Visual Positioning Service (VPS), a service which will enable world scale AR experiences well beyond a tabletop.” The company thinks the Web will end up being a part of AR as well and is also releasing “prototype browsers for web developers so they can start experimenting with AR”. These AR-websites will work in Android/ARCore and iOS/ARKit, claims the company.