Google today unveiled a preview of ARCore, an Android software development kit (SDK) that brings the augmented reality to existing and future Android phones without requiring additional sensors or hardware. Developers can download the SDK directly and start creating new AR experiences on Android.
The preview of ARCore currently supports Google Pixel, Google Pixel XL, Samsung Galaxy S8 and Samsung Galaxy S8 +.
Required by Android 7.0 Nougat and up.
Google hopes ARCore will be added to 100 millions of devices by the end of the preview (no date was released for release of the final version).
Google is reportedly working with mobile device makers such as Samsung, Huawei, LG, ASUS and many others to bring the new SDK "more quality and higher performance" to more devices.
Today's release is the next big step in Google's plan to bring AR capabilities to more devices. ARCore is based on the project already done with Tango's augmented reality platform.
Tango was released for the first time in June of 2014 and has only been available in a series of devices with two commercial phones: Lenovo's Phab 2 Pro in August of 2016 and Asus Zenfone AR this month.
ARCore is supposed to favor Android more widely, which Google considers to be "the largest mobile platform in the world." Today there are over 2 billion devices Android.
ARCore focuses on three areas to bring the augmented reality to Android mobile phones: tracking traffic, understanding the environment, and estimating light.
Η traffic monitoring is achieved by using the phone camera to monitor points in the room and measuring inactivity from the IMU sensor of the device.
This process, called visual inertial odometry or VIO, allows ARCore to determine the location (orientation and orientation) of the phone in relation to space.
Environmental understanding means that AR objects can be placed on surfaces such as a floor or a table. ARCore can detect the horizontal surfaces using their own features (visually distinctive camera image that ARCore can recognize even when the camera position changes slightly) that it uses to monitor the motion.
The estimation of light allows ARCore to monitor lighting in the environment and allow programmers to illuminate virtual objects in ways that fit their environment, making their appearance more realistic.