3 WebAR Tools You Can Use Today to Social Distance Safely
Developers and Businesses Are Using WebAR to Visualize “Safe Zones” as People Emerge From Shelter-in-Place
Updated on 6/13/20 to include “MySafeCity” PSA initiative.
Around the world, as shelter-in-place protocols begin to ease and people slowly step out of their homes, we’re urged to maintain a safe distance of 6ft (or at least 1.5 meters) from one another. Grocery stores are using tape to mark the ground at 6ft intervals between patrons, and public parks are painting “social distancing circles” onto their lawns.
To help us better visualize a safe distance from one another as we navigate this new normal, developers and businesses are getting creative with using WebAR to develop real-world social distancing guides that work on any smartphone.
Here are three you can try today:
1. “Gap-Puccino” by WONDA Coffee
You don’t have to drink coffee to use this one: WONDA Coffee launched Malaysia’s first WebAR social distancing guide called “Gap-Puccino.” Created by agency Entropia, this activation is designed to help people keep a safe distance from one another as they emerge from their homes under the government’s latest conditional movement control order (CMCO), which eases some of the earlier COVID-19 related restrictions.
WONDA Coffee’s Gap-Puccino social distancing guide indicates ‘caution’ and ‘danger’ zones around the user, helping them to more easily identify a safe distance from others.
Try it here on your smartphone: 😷 Gap-Puccino
2. Reality Matters COVID-19 Safe Zone
Virtual and augmented reality agency Reality Matters’ version of the social distancing tool displays a 1.5 meter radius “COVID-19 Safe Zone” around the user, and urges them to keep their distance from others.
Try it here on your smartphone: 😷 Reality Matters COVID-19 Safe Zone
3. SafeZone in Sydney
Agency Tigerspike created a WebAR experience that visualizes a 1- 1.5 meter diameter to the user.
“In Sydney, the COVID-19 restrictions included social distancing of 1.5 meters, and my partner and I were way off with our guesses,” says Matt Alishah, Principal of UX and Strategy at Tigerspike. “8th Wall’s floor plane detection is really stable and accurate. When the safe zone is dropped in this web app, it helps guide users to keep a safe distance if they need to be out for groceries or exercise.”
Try it here on your smartphone: 😷 SafeZone WebAR
Bonus: Preparing for the New Normal with MySafeCity
MySafeCity was launched as a PSA initiative to help Malaysians stay safe and practice social responsibility during the nation’s Movement Control Order period. With contents refreshed daily, users could pick up engaging information on COVID-19 and keep up with the new norm as they explore and interact with buildings within the 3D city. The WebAR activation was created by agency MinistryXR.
Try it here on your smartphone: 😷 MySafeCity WebAR
We hope you continue to stay safe and healthy out there!
Share your WebAR experience with us on Twitter @the8thwall or on the 8th Wall Developer Slack channel.
