How Google is using ARCore’s Cloud Anchors to bring magic into the world
At Google I/O in May, Google introduced us to ARCore and Cloud Anchors — the next big switch since the advent of the mobile phone. Now developers have the power to create multi-user experiences in any physical space, with either Android or iOS.
Over the coming months, we’ll see the most innovative and immersive AR apps fly out from the minds of talented developers all across the world and come crashing down to earth. Like shareVOX, our very own rapid multiplayer voxel tool.
James Birney, product manager for Cloud Anchors, touched on the gravity of this shift at our recent XR Meetup:
“Think what you were doing in 2005 — where were you? What were you using? Did you have a phone? Did that phone have snake as the primary game? Think of the jump that happens between that and 2009, when you probably had an iPhone…All of a sudden the thing in your pocket could do much more than make a phone call… This is a similar switch, going from mobile phones that know how to do what they do today, to mobile phones that know where they are in space and are able to understand environment around them seamlessly and in real time.”
At its core, ARCore allows your phone to become even smarter as it navigates the world. It’s the motion tracking and computer vision technology that makes the magic. Your phone locates and orients itself in any physical space with the data captured from the surrounding environment. It not only recognises the space you’re in, but it establishes a frame of reference for you.
What this means it that by leveraging the power of ARCore, your phone helps you share AR experiences with others, wherever you are in the world.
The new feature of ARCore that takes your phone beyond the screen to the digital world is the Cloud Anchor API.
Hosting an anchor
To host a native anchor in the Cloud, your phone extracts visual points of interest (POIs) from the environment using contrast points. Think walls, or the table leg you always stub your toe on. These visual features are abstracted, processed in the Cloud and hey presto! Within seconds you’re hosting a Cloud Anchor.
Storing IDs and resolving anchor
The next attribute is the Cloud Anchor ID. This ID is much like a filename, as it means you can reference any given Cloud Anchor from multiple phones in real time. Once your Cloud Anchor ID is generated, it’s really easy to share.
Sharing between phones
With this Cloud Anchor ID, users in the same consistent location can ‘resolve’ your reference frame and access it themselves. From there, each phone is represented in digital space and you are able to interact with others on a virtual canvas.
The first app to reap the rewards of this interactivity is Just a Line.
Just a Line encourages users to paint in virtual space with simple white lines. Though a simple proof of concept, it is an important experiment with the immersive potential of AR:
“What we added to is the ability to have not just one artist, but multiple artists drawing in the same space. Hopefully you see… the powerful experience enabled when you can interact with your friends and draw together. What one person draws, you can build on top of that” — James Birney, Google I/O.
Until this point, you couldn’t share a virtual creation with others. Now not only can you share a creation, but you can connect across Android and iOS platforms as well. Just a Line has even been battle tested on 100 phones simultaneously! Well played.
Notably, several weeks after our initial release of shareVOX, Apple launched their ARKit 2.0 in partnership with Lego.
Just sayin’.
It’s an exciting leap forward for developers and all of humankind. With this amazing tech available at our fingertips, we hope to it won’t be long before we see how AR can change the world around us — Team PHORIA
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