ARCore Augmented Faces and Cloud Anchors

5/15/2024

This post announces the expansion of Geospatial AR content into Google Maps through a pilot program in Singapore and Paris, leveraging Street View and Lens in Maps. It also highlights the general availability of Geospatial Creator in Adobe Aero, updates to Geospatial Creator in Unity for scaled anchor creation using C# and the Places API, and the expansion of ARCore Geospatial API coverage to India. The post emphasizes the ease of content creation and the new distribution channels for AR experiences.

2/8/2024

This post details the technical implementation of an AR experience for CES 2024 using Google's Geospatial Creator, ARCore, and Photorealistic 3D Tiles from Google Maps Platform. It highlights the use of Adobe Aero for AR assembly and interaction design, Unreal Engine for the 3D Android Bot, and Autodesk Maya for character and asset creation. The post emphasizes the rapid iteration capabilities, real-world anchoring, and app-less access via QR codes, showcasing practical applications of Geospatial Creator for event navigation and attendee engagement.

9/5/2023

This post details the development of the "SPACE INVADERS: World Defense" AR game, highlighting the use of ARCore's Geospatial API, Streetscape Geometry API, and Geospatial Creator. It explains how the Geospatial API uses camera images and Street View data for real-world positioning, including a JavaScript code snippet for tracking accuracy checks. The Streetscape Geometry API is used to procedurally generate unique gameplay based on real-world topography and city layouts. The "Invader's Dimension" feature is described, involving a depth image and an A* search algorithm for path generation and smoothing. Geospatial Creator and Photorealistic 3D Tiles were used for visualizing virtual content in specific locations. Updates include Indoor Mode and score rebalancing to encourage outdoor play.

5/10/2023

Introduced Streetscape Geometry API for 3D building and terrain mesh, Rooftop Anchors for anchoring content to building rooftops, Geospatial Depth API combining device depth and Streetscape Geometry for improved depth mapping, and Scene Semantics API for AI-driven pixel classification of outdoor scenes (sky, building, tree, road, sidewalk, vehicle, person, water, etc.). Released Mega Golf as an open-source demo showcasing these new APIs.

5/10/2023

Introduces Geospatial Creator, a tool that leverages ARCore and Google Maps Platform's Photorealistic 3D Tiles to enable easy visualization, design, and publishing of world-anchored immersive content in minutes via Unity and Adobe Aero. Highlights new capabilities like Rooftop anchors for easier content anchoring. Showcases partner use cases in gaming (SPACE INVADERS: World Defense), retail (Gap x Barbie), art (Global Street Art), tourism (Singapore Tourism Board), and urban planning (Gensler).

5/11/2022

This post announces the public availability of the ARCore Geospatial API, which allows developers to anchor AR content to real-world coordinates. It highlights the integration with Google Maps Platform's Photorealistic 3D Tiles and the Geospatial Creator tool, enabling the creation of persistent, location-anchored AR experiences. The post details how developers can use the API to build applications that leverage real-world context, such as location-based games or immersive educational experiences.

5/18/2021

This post introduces updates to ARCore that enhance interactivity and realism in AR experiences, including improved face tracking for ARCore Augmented Faces and enhanced capabilities for Cloud Anchors, enabling more robust shared AR experiences.

10/6/2020

ARCore 1.20 introduces improvements to Cloud Anchors, enabling more robust and persistent shared AR experiences by allowing anchors to be stored and retrieved from the cloud, facilitating multi-user AR sessions.

6/25/2020

Introduced the ARCore Depth API, which provides depth data from the device's camera. This enables developers to create more realistic AR experiences by allowing virtual objects to interact more naturally with the real world, such as occlusion and realistic lighting. The API provides depth images and depth points, allowing for accurate scene understanding.

12/9/2019

Introduced the ARCore Depth API, providing developers with access to depth data from depth-sensing cameras. This enables more realistic AR experiences by allowing virtual objects to interact with the real world in a physically accurate way, such as occlusion and realistic lighting.

11/6/2019

Google has open-sourced Google Cardboard, providing developers with the tools and SDKs to build immersive VR experiences. This includes the release of the Cardboard SDK for Android and iOS, enabling the creation of 360-degree videos and interactive VR applications.

9/12/2019

This post introduces updates to ARCore's Augmented Faces and Cloud Anchors, enabling new shared, cross-platform AR experiences. Augmented Faces now offers improved face tracking capabilities, while Cloud Anchors allows for persistent, shared AR experiences by anchoring virtual content to real-world locations. These advancements facilitate collaborative AR applications across different devices and platforms.

5/7/2019

This post details updates to ARCore that enhance interactivity and realism in AR experiences. It highlights improvements to Augmented Faces, enabling more expressive avatars through better face tracking, and introduces updates to Cloud Anchors that allow for the creation of persistent, shared AR experiences. These updates aim to make AR applications more engaging and collaborative.

2/15/2019

Introduced new UI tools and a richer creative canvas for ARCore, aiming to simplify the development of AR experiences. This includes features that allow developers to more easily build and integrate AR content.

12/7/2018

This post announces updates to ARCore and Sceneform to create more realistic AR experiences. ARCore updates include improved Augmented Faces and Cloud Anchors for better shared AR sessions. Sceneform updates focus on enhanced lighting, shadows, and support for complex 3D model rendering.

9/27/2018

Introduced new APIs to improve augmented reality development with ARCore, including features for building shared AR experiences and enhancing face tracking capabilities.

2/23/2018

This post announces the release of ARCore 1.0, marking a stable platform for building augmented reality experiences. It also details updates to Google Lens, including new object identification and improved image recognition capabilities, and introduces Geospatial Creator for AR experiences.

8/10/2016

This post introduces the Tango device, a platform for augmented reality development that provides depth sensing and motion tracking. It details how Tango enables developers to create AR experiences with a greater sense of reality by allowing for accurate spatial mapping and understanding of the environment. The post highlights the potential for Tango in applications like 3D reconstruction, indoor navigation, and immersive gaming.