In brief
Google Maps is rolling out Live View beta to supported Android and iOS devices, using camera images and Street View data for more precise positioning and AR walking guidance. Indoor navigation support remains limited, while Google continues developing smartphone AR through ARCore.
Google recently announced on its official blog that it would begin rolling out Live View (beta), the AR navigation feature in Google Maps, this week to Android and iOS devices that support ARCore and ARKit.
Google first unveiled the feature at its 2018 I/O conference. Testing with Local Guides users began in February this year, followed by its arrival on Pixel phones in May.
Unlike conventional GPS positioning, Live View uses a visual positioning system. After GPS establishes the phone’s approximate location, users can scan their surroundings with the camera. The captured images are then cross-referenced with Google Street View data to determine a more precise location.
Besides more accurate positioning, visual positioning offers another benefit: AR route guidance overlaid on the real environment makes routes and directions easier to see. A conventional 2D map also appears on the screen to further help users avoid taking a wrong turn.
Previously, Live View was available only to users who had enrolled in the Google Maps beta and reached Level 5 or above in Google’s Local Guides programme, as well as users of the Pixel 3a, Pixel 3a XL and older Pixel smartphones.
However, this rollout to iOS and Android suggests that Live View will become a standard Google Maps feature. Since Live View relies on Street View map data, its support for indoor navigation is currently limited.
From Project Tango to ARCore
Google began exploring smartphone AR early on, making it an early adopter of smartphone AR. Before Apple introduced ARKit, Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects group (ATAP) announced a new initiative called Project Tango in February 2014, using computer vision to add motion tracking and 3D sensing capabilities to smartphones.
Google also built a prototype phone for the project. Tango project lead Johnny Lee said that the phone was equipped with hardware and software capable of full 3D mapping, allowing it to accurately map its surroundings in three dimensions. Its sensors were fast enough to update the surrounding geographical information in real time and rapidly convert that data into 3D models.
However, Google did not license Tango technology to any third party. Anyone wishing to use Tango had to purchase one of the few hardware models officially supported by Google. These phones attracted little market attention at the time. Following the launch of ARCore, and given Tango’s own limitations, Google discontinued the Tango project in December 2017.
ARCore is an augmented reality (AR) software development kit officially launched by Google in August 2017. It draws on advances in cloud software and device hardware to place digital objects in the real world, giving developers a platform for building AR apps. However, ARCore was launched after Apple introduced ARKit.
Google has already developed several mobile applications based on ARCore. Alongside the Google Maps Live View feature mentioned earlier, these include applications using Playground mode in the Pixel camera, YouTube Stories and ARCore’s new Augmented Faces API.
From Project Tango to ARCore, Google has spent five years developing applications of smartphone AR technology. Despite its early start, Apple’s ARKit overtook it along the way. Although Google’s early entry into smartphone AR did not translate into an early lead, it continues to make improvements. Given Google’s commitment to smartphone AR, the future development of ARCore and the AR applications built on it looks promising.
Original article URL: https://bit.ly/2Z1sZWC