Aw man, this is so cool!
I’m so cool!
[snap]
And, we’re back to reality...
Hello everyone and welcome to DIY in 5, the show where we get you all caught up on your
tech knowledge so you can chat gadgets and build robots with the best of ‘em.
I don’t think we’ve actually done a robot episode yet - that’ll be a fun one!
My name is Trisha Hershberger and today we are talking about augmented reality you can
experience all from your Android phone!
A few weeks back we did an iPhone-specific AR video and if you want to check that out,
you can do so by clicking here!
In that video we went over some of the augmented reality basics - what it is, how it’s different
from VR, etc. and the TL:DR version of that is that augmented reality, or AR,
is digital information overlaid on top of actual reality.
So virtual reality is an entirely digital world and augmented reality is your world, just better.
If you think Pokémon Go, that’s a really well-known example of Augmented Reality.
Another really cool thing about AR is that you
don’t need a one thousand dollar headset to experience it.
Modern android phones will do just fine!
In February of 2018, Google announced ARCore,
their platform for building augmented reality experiences.
ARCore uses three main capabilities to allow devs to place virtual content into real world:
motion tracking, understanding the environment and estimating light levels.
This is great because the simpler it becomes to develop AR, the more AR we get as the consumer.
The catch?
You need a compatible Android phone to make all the magic happen.
Google Pixel, Samsung Galaxy S7 or newer, LG V30, ASUS’ Zenfone AR or OnePlus 5
are a few that are currently compatible, and Google is teaming up with
other smartphone manufacturers: Sony, Huawei, Vivo, etc,
to get the AR Pokéball rolling soon.
Speaking of AR Pokéballs, there are a ton of fantastic AR apps available right now on Android,
other than Pokémon Go.
Let’s talk about Ingress, the game that was around long before Pokémon Go,
from the same developer team, Niantic, that really laid the groundwork
for the game we all now know so well.
Ingress turns our world into a complex, sci-fi world where you fight for either the Resistance
or the Enlightened, capturing virtual portals by traveling to them in the real world for your side.
They do a lot of immersive, real world events to pull players even deeper into the game
and I can say from experience, it’s pretty cool.
Another fun AR app currently available for Android
is Quiver, the augmented reality coloring book.
You can download real coloring pages from the internet, color them in, then the app
brings your creations to life -- some of them will even play games with you.
This is great for getting your kids into AR.
Or what about coloring digital art into your world?
Just a Line lets you draw things in AR space and they stay where you draw them.
Have you been shopping for a tattoo but not sure how it will look?
Inkhunter has a huge library of tattoos that you can try out
on whatever part of your body you’d like and inspect it from all angles.
Some other, more useful AR apps I really like include Star Walk 2.
You hold your phone up to the sky and the display shows the names of the stars, planets,
constellations and even moving satellites.
If you like to hike, ViewRanger lets you discover trails nearby.
And of course, Google Translate will translate written language in real time to your phone
so you can read street signs, menus, etc. in another language.
Another AR beast from Google is Google Lens, which will intelligently analyze any photo
and provides any information Google can find about it,
including analyzing any text it can find in the photo which is very impressive.
There’s new augmented reality being developed all the time and I for one am very happy about it!
Here’s to hoping the new AR game Ghostbusters World
will be more than just Pokémon Go with proton packs...
I got to play it a little bit at San Diego Comic-Con this year and it looks promising.
So, what other cool AR apps are you using or looking forward to right now?
Sound off in the comments.
I’m Trisha Hershberger and you’ve been watching DIYin5.
See ya next time! ...if you subscribe, so then you’ll know next time we upload a video is.
It’s like right around here somewhere probably?
Okay bye!