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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HoloLens - the true augmented reality milestone

Build 2016 is over. We have seen a true kickoff of HoloLens, now everybody can buy a developer edition to build and test own apps. Of course they need to have....3000 USD. That is a lot, but the cost is not the main topic on which I want to focus today. After the presentation we can read a lot of comments that say that this is still a clumsy technology, that this is not so exciting as everybody thinks. So what is all about ?

HoloLens is not a everyday technology

Let us start from this statement. HoloLens is not something you would call an everyday augmented reality headset. Of course, you can have at your home and play with it, you can take it to your work and use it for that. So there is a way to use it everyday in your life BUT you won't wear it during your trip to work, you won't go with it to the shop. To be honest, you won't wear it anywhere outside your home or office.

First of all they are simply too big. Yes, the current version is much better than the prototype that was shown year ago, it is much easier to wear it, use it, adjust to the user, they are more comfortable but still they are just too big. It is hard to say that nobody will notice that you are wearing them.

Secondly we have the main problem of every mobile device, battery. According to Microsoft we`re talking here about 2-3 hours of constant work. It's not even a half of standard work day, that means you always need to be close of something that will be able to charge your HoloLens. Hard to say that this is a comfortable situation.

And last but not least...the cost. We can assume that user edition will be cheaper than current developer version but let us be real, there is no chance that the difference will be significant, and 3000 USD is a lot of money. There won't be many people that will be able to afford it just to wear it around and use it for Cortana`s reminders. 

It is not important !

Should we care about above problems ? No, not now. HoloLens is a big step forward for augmented reality. I think that it is even more than one step. It is a milestone. Microsoft made something fantastic for propagation AR. Thanks to that device we can get a bit closer to understanding of true potential of augmented reality in our lifes.

This device is something similar to first laptop, pda or tablet. It is something big, expensive, without well defined usage. It sounds horrible but it something fantastic. It allows to understand the technology, to experiment with it, to show something great, cool and fantastic to people, to move forward, to look further. HoloLens is like a key that will open augmented reality on masses. I can't tell will the device built by Microsoft will be the best one, but I know that this is the one of biggest and most important moment for augmented reality at our time. Now we need to wait for ideas, for prototypes and different approaches. This will show us in which way augmented reality will go in near future. 

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Microsoft and HoloLens

As most of you already know, recently Microsoft announced that on start of 2016 there will be available a developer version of HoloLens. That is a good news because know we can be sure that this project won't be hidden in closet.

HoloLens - what is it ?

HoloLens is an example of special googles that changes our reality. It is a computer that brings high-definition holograms into our world. You can see them like they were real, you can fully interact with them. This is really a good job done by Microsoft. 

HoloLens is not a project related with our every day life, at least not now. This is not the kind of device that you'll wear on your way to work but there is a chance that in near future you will wear them to do your work. Even now, on this early stage, everyone can see how big potential is hidden in HoloLens. If you now, can design and build something in Minecraft - using HoloLens - why won't you be able to design a real building and decompose it ?

Project X-Ray

I was watching last Microsoft conference and when I saw project X-Ray I was stunned. This is really something that we can call "future". The way how HoloLens work with the envoirment is fantastic. I never saw anything simillar to that. Currently - in my opinion - Microsoft is years in front of the competition. If someone didn'nt watch please take a look below, you won't regret it.

First of all I really love the way how HoloLens understands your envoirment, that it can use it to select a path, to change the logic of movement. This is really something. This is the path that should be taken by the gaming business. The game is never boring because you can change it by changing elements in the room. This is example of true mixing realities. This is a step beyond standard augmented reality !

Wow, yeah, fantastic, awsome...is worth it ?

I know that there is a lot of "big" words, I know that this is just a prototype and it still can be a big fail but it is not all about HoloLens only. It is about a way, path that we can see. This is a promise of better future related with augmented reality.

I trully belive that HoloLens - or different project simillar to it - will be a device that will be as popular as a simple PC nowadays. I belive that this will be a next, big revolution related with technology of every human. This is sci-fi ovie in our home, in our hands. A wearable hologram - I love this term - it is really something !

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