Anuj Gosalia, Director of Engineering, AR
Last year, we released a preview of the ARCore software Tools development Kit (SDK), which brings AR (augmented reality) experiences to Android devices. Applications built with ARCore recognize the user’s environment and present objects and information in it, creating many useful and fun experiences for the user. Now that we’re officially releasing ARCore 1.0 and a new set of support and tools for developers around the world, we share some of our first practices for developing with ARCore.
In China, we’re also working with smartphone vendors — starting with Huawei, Xiaomi, and Samsung — to ship ARCore to their devices sold in the country, and developers will be able to distribute their AR apps through their own app stores. These devices and related experiences will be available in the coming months.
Making ARCore available on more devices is just one part of what we’re doing. We’ve also provided additional improvements and support for developers to make their AR application development process faster and easier. ARCore 1.0 improves contextual understanding, enabling users to place virtual objects on arbitrary textured surfaces, such as posters, furniture, toy boxes, books, bottles, and more. ARCore is now available on the Android Studio Beta emulator, making it easy for developers to test applications in a virtual environment on their computer.
We’ve also been working with some great developers to show how they can use AR to create apps: Through The DIY designer of The Home of The Home, users can place furniture and over 100,000 objects in any room they’re in; When shopping on JD.com, users can view items and place them in their homes. Netease, Wargaming and Game Insight are also developing new games based on ARCore.
