Say hello to ARCore

Recently I wrote about the possible impact of ARKit on the augmented reality market. We didn’thave to wait long for the first effects, the ARCore.

What is ARCore ?

ARCore is a platform for building augmented reality applications on Android. That sounds like a very good slogan, so let us try a bit simpler.
ARCore is nothing more than a set of tools that handles the most complex operation for the programmer, it brings AR capabilities to a wide audience.
ARCore does not need any special equipment, it uses standard camera in your phone to bring AR to life. It focuses on three main elements:

1.       Motion tracking – phone can understand and track its position relative to the world

2.       Environment understanding – phone can detect the size and location of horizontal surfaces

3.       Light estimation – phone can estimate the environment current lightning conditions

All this combined, gives us a lot of new possibilities on Android phones.

Limitation

On current stage it is hard to talk about limitation. For sure the biggest problem is the small number of supported devices. At the moment of writing this article, only three phones are officially supported: Pixel, Pixel XL and Samsung Galaxy S8. Why S8+ or Note 8 are not supported ? Only Google knows. The amount of devices should increase with time as Google is talking with other producers. We will see.

In terms of software limitation as I wrote it is hard to say. Currently it is even hard to find any interesting NEW project based on ARCore beside those officially introduced along with the information about ARCore. For sure possibilities are big, but how big, where do they end, those are the big questions. Again, we need to wait to get the answer on that.

What next ?

What can we do ? We need to wait and observe. I`m guessing that in short time we will see a lot of interesting tests done by individual programmers and companies. Those ideas, concepts, prototypes will show us how far we can go with the current version, what we can build with ARCore, will it be a good and true answer to Apple ARKit. I hope so. At the moment we have those two players on the field but we can’t forget about Facebook and their plans to invest 3 billion dollars in the AR platform. And of course we have Microsoft with the HoloLens. For sure thanks to Google and Apple, augmented reality is getting wider audience, people see that this technology carries huge possibilities. This can bring the demand and every time when there is a demand someone need to satisfy it. For sure we are standing in front of huge milestone for the augmented reality.

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Is Apple the game changer for Augmented Reality ?

Some time ago I wrote an article about how augmented reality needs Apple. Not for revolution ideas, not for revolution projects but just for the brand. For many years Apple is an icon of innovation, almost every one of their ideas is a bestseller. Now we have the ARKit. What now ?

Is this what we wanted ?

When I was writing my previous article I was sure that answer on this question will be very easy, but now…I’m not so sure anymore.

Yes, because it brings augmented reality to wider audience. Yes, because it presents possibilities which are brought by AR to our every day life. ARKit allows to materialize a lot of different and exciting concepts. This is fantastic ! No doubt about it. This is also a great boost for other producers. We are in the middle of technological war between manufacturers, if someone is entering market with a new idea, others will try to catch up. Just today I saw an article about possibility of a special version of the Samsung Note 8 with Project Tango. That is what I wanted, the race for augmented reality mounted into the smartphone. Just for that I must say “THANK YOU APPLE !”.

Is there a “no” ? Unfortunately yes. I’ve understood it during my research. It is not about technology itself. It is rather more about content that it is providing. Recently we saw similar situation with Windows mobile platform. The operating system was cool, it was something new and fresh BUT it didn’t provide enough content so it was disqualified for many. ARKit itself is great, it gives the developers a lot of new possibilities but we still do not have enough content. Of course you can say “give them some more time” but I think it is not the only factor. We still have problems with finding useful use cases for augmented reality.

How to sum this up ?

1.       Apple done a fantastic work for spreading augmented reality to consumers

2.       It is an interesting tool that gives great possibilities for experiments

3.       We need to find usage for AR in our lives. Without that it will be just a gadget for small group of geeks

I’m looking forward for new projects, I want to observe what this will bring for us, AR fans.

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Why Augmented Reality needs Apple ?

Probably most of you will think that Apple is so great and fantastic that no one else can do something good for augmented reality. If you think that way, I have 3 words for you:
1. no
2. No
3. NO !

Apple is a great company

No doubt that Apple is one of the biggest company in the world. They achieved so much, that it is hard to count the biggest achievements. They created fantastic products, but also - as every company - some of them were very bad. But the number one of all this, is the power of influence on the masses and this is the true reason why augmented reality needs Apple

Talk and talk and talk and...

Lately almost every day I see headline about how Tim Cook is talking about power of the augmented reality, how it is better than virtual reality, or how the augmented reality is the future and so on and so on. Unfortunately nothing is happening, no action taken. The action that we - all the fans of AR - need so much.

Some can say that we have Pokemon GO. Sure ! But as I wrote here, I don't think that friendly creatures will change anything. Augmented reality needs a true breakthrough. We need something, or maybe I should say someone, that will lead, that will show the way, that will inspire the masses. We need a true influencer.

Look at Google, Microsoft. We are talking here about largest companies in the world. They created Google glasses, HoloLens. Those are two fantastic products and nothing! People don't care about them. Of course I'm not talking here about geeks or AR enthusiasts but about masses that will by such products, people that don't care about low level technology. They want to see the effect.

"How does somebody know what they need if they haven't even seen it?"

Do you remember when Steve Jobs said that ? Those words are still very important. People don't know that they need augmented reality because most of the do not understand it. They can't even imagine how powerful tool it is and what they can achieve with that. So please Apple, please Mr. Cook, do something with this ! Prove the world that Apple is really the greatest company in the world. Stop playing with new colors of iPhone, stop destroying your devices by removing parts, stop making wires to Bluetooth headsets. Please, do the one thing that a long time ago was your trademark. Be innovative again, inspire people, lead them, show them the way, show them what they can achieve having such powerful tool like augmented reality ! Please !

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