What is augmented reality android

Augmented Reality: Getting Started on Android

Perhaps you’ve heard about augmented reality—it’s a hot topic in mobile right now. Learn about what augmented reality is and how you can leverage this technique in your Android applications in this introductory article.

Defining Augmented Reality

Before we start discussing how to write augmented reality applications, let’s take a step back and define what it is. Wikipedia defines augmented reality as such:

«Augmented reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by virtual computer-generated sensory input, such as sound or graphics. It is related to a more general concept called mediated reality, in which a view of reality is modified (possibly even diminished rather than augmented) by a computer. As a result, the technology functions by enhancing one’s current perception of reality.»

Recently mobile developers have begun leveraging augmented reality techniques by taking input from the camera and overlaying images in real-time, usually meshed up with the image to either show where something real-world is (such as an icon for a restaurant) or perhaps a virtual sign or object.

This isn’t to say there aren’t other definitions or looser definitions or implementations of AR around today. One could argue, for instance, that Google Sky Map is augmented reality even though it’s not drawing over the camera view, yet does just about everything else an augmented reality app would do (see figure below). Don’t get too caught up in the definition and simply think of opportunities your applications might benefit from “overlaying” meta-data on real live data. For instance, eBay recently announced that they’re adding an augmented reality feature to their fashion application. This feature allows users to see themselves with different pairs of sunglasses on.

The rest of this tutorial will discuss the various aspects of augmented reality and how they apply to Android. The tutorial will not dive in the specifics of implementation just yet. That’s a bit beyond the scope of this introductory tutorial, but if readers show interest, we can continue down this road and provide some concrete tutorials on this topic.

Why Re-Invent The Wheel? Existing Options for Incorporating Lightweight AR Support in Your Apps

Already feeling overwhelmed? Perhaps you have data that you want others to be able to explore in an augmented reality environment but you don’t want to fully implement AR support in your own applications. If the aspect of pulling it all together in a coherent implementation seems like overkill for your project, what are you to do?

Try using an existing AR service, such as Layar. They provide clients for both the Android and iPhone platforms. For example, the Layar service allows anyone to add data that can be displayed for users and handles the details of the AR. As a bonus, it’s also cross platform, so your data will be made available to their Android and iPhone clients.

Providing Your Own Custom AR Implementations: The Basics

Now that we have a shared definition of augmented reality, let’s discuss how it all fits together and each of the Android components that might be leveraged in your typical AR application.

Your typical AR implementation contains two main parts: the “live” data we’re augmenting and the “meta” data used for the augmentation. For a real-world overlay example, the live data we’re augmenting will usually be a combination of information in the viewfinder of the rear-facing camera, the current location, and the direction the device is facing. This information is then cross-referenced with a list of “meta” data.

For instance, if we want to see the locations of gas stations in the view finder, the AR “service” must have augmentation data for each gas station, including its latitude and a longitude. Using this information, and the direction in which the device/camera is pointing, we can approximate the location of each gas station as an overlay on the view finder window and display a little fuel icon on or above its location.

The augmentation data source (e.g. the list of gas station locations) can be anything, but often it’s a preloaded database or a web service that can filter to nearby points of interest.

The rest of the AR implementation consists of using device camera APIs, graphics APIs, and sensor APIs to overlay the augmentation data over the live data and create a pleasant augmented experience.

Key AR Component #1: Camera Data

Displaying the live feed from the Android camera is the reality in augmented reality. The camera data is available by using the APIs available within the android.hardware.Camera package.

If your application doesn’t need to analyze frame data, then starting a preview in the normal way by using a SurfaceHolder object with the setPreviewDisplay() method is appropriate. With this method, you’ll be able to display what the camera is recording on the screen for use. However, if your application does need the frame data, it’s available by calling the setPreviewCallback() method with a valid Camera.PreviewCallback object.

Key AR Component #2: Location Data

Just having the camera feed for most augmented reality applications isn’t enough. You’ll also need to determine the location of the device (and therefore its user). To do this, you’ll need to access fine or coarse location information, commonly accessed through the APIs available within the android.location package, with its LocationManager class. This way, your application can listen to location events and use those to determine where “live” items of interest are located in relation to the device.

If you’re building an augmented reality application that will analyze the camera feed with computer vision (that is, where the computer «sees» things by extracting all the information it needs from the input images) to determine where to place augmentation data, you may not need to know the device location. Using computer vision is, in itself, a deep topic currently under research. Most solutions we’ve seen use the OpenCV libraries. More information on OpenCV can be found at the OpenCV wiki.

When location data isn’t used, a «marker» or «tag» is often used. That is, an easily recognizable object where orientation and scale of an object to draw over it can be quickly determined. For instance, AndAR uses a simple marker to draw a cube over it, as a test of AR abilities.

Key AR Component #3: Sensor Data

Sensor data is often important to AR implementations. For example, knowing the orientation of the phone is usually very useful when trying to keep data synchronized with the camera feed.

To determine the orientation of an Android device,you’ll need to leverage the APIS available in the android.hardware.SensorManager package. Some sensors you’re likely to tap include:

• Sensor.TYPE_MAGNETIC_FIELD
• Sensor.TYPE_ACCELEROMETER
• Sensor.TYPE_ROTATION_VECTOR

The use of sensors to allow the user to move the device around and see changes on the screen in relation to it really pulls the user into applications in an immersive fashion. When the camera feed is showing, this is critical, but in other applications, such as those exploring pre-recorded image data (such as with Google Sky Map or Street View), this technique is still very useful and intuitive for users.

Bringing It Together: The Graphics Overlay

Of course, the whole point of augmented reality is to draw something over the camera feed that, well, augments what the user is seeing live. Conceptually, this is as simple as simply drawing something over the camera feed. How you achieve this, though, is up to you.

You could read in each frame from of the camera feed, add an overlay to it, and draw the frame on the screen (perhaps as a Bitmap or maybe as a texture on a 3D surface). For instance, you could leverage the android.hardware.Camera.PreviewCallback class, which allows your application to get frame-by-frame images.

Alternately, you could use a standard SurfaceHolder with the android.hardware.Camera object and simply draw over the top of the Surface, as needed.

Finally, what and how you draw depends upon your individual application requirements—there are both 2D or 3D graphics APIs available on Android, most notably the APIs within the android.graphics and android.opengl packages.

Storing and Accessing Augmentation Data

So where does the augmentation data come from? Generally speaking, you’ll either be getting this data from your own database, which might be stored locally or from a database online somewhere through a web or cloud service. If you’ve preloaded augmentation data on the device, you’ll likely want to use a SQLite database for quick and easy lookups; you’ll find the SQLite APIs in the android.database.sqlite package. For web-based data, you’ll want to connect up to a web service using the normal methods: HTTP and (usually) XML parsing. For this, you can simply use java.net.URL class with one of the XML parsing classes, such as the XmlPullParser class, to parse the results.

Conclusion

Augmented reality is a broad topic that touches on many aspects of Android development and many APIs. In this tutorial, you’ve learned what augmented reality is and what Android components are involved (with related Android APIs). Now you can combine this new knowledge with what you know of the Android SDK to enhance your existing applications or build new augmented reality applications.

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ARCore: дополненная реальность на Android

Более двух миллиардов устройств работает на Android — крупнейшей мобильной платформе в мире. Последние девять лет мы работали над созданием широкого набора инструментов, фреймворков и API, благодаря которым продукты разработчиков становятся доступными каждому. Сегодня мы запускаем превью версию нового SDK (набора средств для разработки программного обеспечения) — ARCore. Это позволит применять технологию дополненной реальности на уже существующих и новых устройствах Android. Разработчики могут начать экспериментировать с ARCore уже сейчас.

В течение последних трех лет мы работаем над технологиями, которые способствуют развитию дополненной реальности на мобильных устройствах, с помощью платформы Tango. Она стала основой для создания ARCore. Благодаря тому, что этот SDK не требует дополнительного оборудования, он может применяться на различных устройствах Android. Мы планируем запустить ARCore на миллионах устройств. С сегодняшнего дня он будет доступен на Pixel и Samsung S8, работающих на Android 7.0 и более поздних версиях. К завершению тестового периода мы рассчитываем, что ARCore будет работать на 100 млн устройств. Для того чтобы он работал качественно и приносил хорошие результаты, мы сотрудничаем с Samsung, Huawei, LG, ASUS и другими компаниями.

ARCore работает на Java/OpenGL, Unity и Unreal и фокусируется на следующих направлениях:

• Отслеживание движения. Используя камеру телефона для отслеживания опорных точек в комнате (п.п. эти точки определяют место, где будет расположен виртуальный объект) и данных гироскопа, ARCore определяет положение и ориентацию устройства во время движения. При этом виртуальные объекты остаются именно там, где вы их расположили.
• Распознавание окружающей среды. Обычно объекты дополненной реальности размещаются на полу или столе. ARCore может распознавать горизонтальные поверхности, используя те же опорные точки, что и при отслеживании движения.
• Оценка освещения. ARCore определяет уровень освещенности окружающей среды и дает возможность разработчикам освещать виртуальные объекты в соответствии с обстановкой вокруг. Благодаря этому они выглядят еще более реалистично.

Наряду с ARCore мы развиваем другие приложения и сервисы, которые помогут разработчикам создавать отличные решения в области дополненной реальности. Мы запустили проекты Blocks и Tilt Brush, чтобы каждый с легкостью мог создавать хороший 3D-контент для своих AR-приложений. На конференции Google I/O мы объявили, что работаем над сервисом визуального позиционирования (Visual Positioning Service). Он позволит вывести применение технологии дополненной реальности в мире за пределы компьютера. Мы также считаем, что ключевая роль в развитии дополненной реальности будет принадлежать интернету. Поэтому запускаем прототипы браузеров для веб-разработчиков, чтобы они тоже могли начать экспериментировать с этой технологией. Специализированные браузеры позволяют создавать сайты с поддержкой дополненной реальности для Android/ARCore и iOS/ARKit.

ARCore — наш следующий шаг к тому, чтобы сделать дополненную реальность доступной каждому. Это не последнее нововведение в текущем году. Поделитесь с нами вашим мнением на GitHub. Зайдите в новый раздел AR Experiments, где вы найдете много интересных примеров применения дополненной реальности. Расскажите о своих работах в социальных сетях, добавив хэштег #ARCore. Мы обязательно поделимся теми проектами, которые понравятся нам больше всего.

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10 Best Augmented Reality Apps for Android and iOS in 2021

Augmented reality (AR) apps might sound futuristic, but consumers are catching onto the trend much more than you might think. About 60 percent of them prefer stores that have AR as part of the experience. Not to mention, 40 percent would pay more for your wares after experiencing it through AR.

The question is: Is it time for you to consider augmented reality applications for your commerce strategy?

Don’t wait for someone else to do it. Hire yourself and start calling the shots.

What is Augmented Reality?

Augmented reality is a technology that virtually places a 3D visual into a “real-world” experience. This gives the user the appearance that the virtual object is co-existing with them in the physical world.

AR is often used in gaming, bringing a more realistic experience to gamers and engaging more senses. But it’s also helpful in the shopping experience.

Think about it this way: Shopping online is limited to product photos. Occasionally, there’s a video or 360-degree image, but that’s not commonplace. Compare that to an ARexperience – one where you can see how a hat looks on your head or how a table fits in your kitchen.

That’s why some brands are incorporating the technology into their strategies. Let’s take a look at 10 of the best augmented reality apps, based on a five-star rating system from consumers.

10 Best Augmented Reality Apps in 2021

1. Houzz

A great platform for home goods and furniture sellers, Houzz is one of the top AR apps for planning interior layouts and design. Primarily a home improvement app, Houzz has ecommerce functionality, allowing users to browse and buy products in-app.

The “View in My Room” feature uses AR technology to place products into a photo of the user’s home – using 3D technology, so the resulting image is lifelike. It even goes as far as showing what the product will look like in different lighting. Consumers can literally shop for a new couch from their couch.

2. IKEA Place

IKEA Place is another of the AR apps for iPhone and Android that’s also focused on home decor . The Swedish furniture retailer gives shoppers a chance to put their products in their homes – no assembly required.

This app looks at the bigger picture, taking into account your home’s entire floor plan to see which items will fit best where. Easy drag-and-drop functionality and the option to see different colors almost takes the fun out of the IKEA experience. (But there are still no meatballs.)

3. YouCam Makeup

Next on the list of augmented reality apps (Android and iOS for this one, too) is YouCam Makeup . Here, we move away from interior design and toward the artistry of cosmetics.

Buying makeup is typically a leap of faith – you might get to try on samples at the makeup counter, but fluorescent lighting plays tricks on the eyes and doesn’t account for typical selfie lighting conditions. But YouCam does, allowing shoppers to test makeup from tons of major brands with AR technology.

4. GIPHY World

If the real world were like GIPHY World , it’d be a lot more colorful and imaginative. This app combines animated GIFs and AR, turning photos and videos into canvasses for 3D graphics (a lot like Snapchat does).

If you’re looking to add more personality to your social media content , give GIPHY World a try. Add graphics and animated elements to product photos to give them extra flair for a social audience.

5. Google Lens

One of the AR apps for Android only, Google Lens enhances the search experience. Instead of typing in a text-based query, open the app and aim it at what you want to learn more about. Google Lens will identify the object, tell you what the text says, and even store important numbers. Oh, and it’ll tell you where to buy the object (if it’s a product for sale online). This is just one reason why it’s important to consider a visual search strategy as part of your SEO approach .

Pro tip: You can also use Google Lens from within the Google Photos apps (a hack for iOS users!) and from Google Assistant.

6. Augment

Back in the home goods world, yet another top AR app is Augment . The difference here is that Augment is aimed at ecommerce store owners, who can use the app to create augmented images of their products.

These assets are then primed for your own AR experience, whether that’s in your mobile app, on your website, at in-person activations, or via some other channel. It’s particularly handy for driving “field sales” – in other words, pop-up shops, farmers markets, event sales, and other temporary physical retail ventures.

7. ROAR

ROAR is another one of the best AR apps also targeted to business owners. There are tons of ways to use it: create an AR-powered online store accessible when customers scan product packaging at home, incorporate AR into print ads, and even see which products and categories are most popular when experienced through AR.

On the consumer side, the app enhances both in-store and at-home brand experiences by providing deeper, more engaging content and information about the products they’re interested in. They can browse reviews, look at pricing, and even purchase the product in-app.

8. Amikasa

Amikasa is one of the home-furnishing AR apps only available on iOS (no Android version is currently available). Rather than focus on a single store or brand, Amikasa aggregates products from all over the web, so shoppers can create a cohesive room without visiting every store or website.

Users can even purchase items without ever leaving the app. Remember, more channels means more conversion opportunities. If you sell home goods, it could be worth getting your items listed on Amikasa.

9. Snapchat

Sure, Snapchat is a social media app known for its younger user base, fun effects, and self-destructing messages. But did you know that it’s also an AR application? Those wacky-face filters showcase AR at work.

Brands can incorporate Snapchat marketing and AR into their strategy by creating a presence and also investing in branded filters. Find out more about how to use Snapchat to promote your business.

10. Wanna Kicks

Another iOS-exclusive AR app, Wanna Kicks is narrow in its scope. Designed specifically for sneaker lovers, Wanna Kicks puts virtual versions of footwear on your feet. You can see what they actually look like if you were to wear them – from any angle.

And because this demographic is so socially driven, of course there’s a built-in option to share on social and solicit friends’ feedback.

Summary

AR gives consumers a new, multi-dimensional way to research and interact with products before making a purchase. This list is just 10 of the top augmented reality apps available. There are tons more, too – from third-party apps that ecommerce brands can use to boast their wares to branded experiences that add another customer touchpoint.

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