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InfoQ Homepage News Google ARCore Hits 1.0, Runs on More Devices

Google ARCore Hits 1.0, Runs on More Devices

Following its preview announcement, Google is now releasing ARCore 1.0, which greatly extends the set of supported devices.

Announced as a preview last September, Google’s new augmented reality (AR) platform ARCore can now runs on more than ten different Android phones, including Google’s own Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL; Samsung’s Galaxy S8, S8+, Note8, S7 and S7 edge; LGE’s V30, V30+; ASUS Zenfone AR; and OnePlus’s OnePlus 5. While this is just a tiny fraction of all existing Android phones, it is a significant improvement over the preview’s set of supported devices, which just included Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy S8 phones. With this, Google maintains, ARCore is able to run on 100 million devices. Extending the set of compatible devices is an ongoing effort and Google will partner with all major manufacturers, including Samsung, Huawei, LGE, ASUS and others, to make sure their upcoming phones are all supported.

Besides a larger supported device base, ARCore 1.0 also adds a number of new features, such as the ability to place virtual assets on textured surfaces like posters, furniture, and more. Additionally, Android Studio’s Emulator now supports ARCore, which makes testing AR features of an app possible without running it on a physical device.

On the heels of ARCore 1.0 announcement, Google is deprecating Tango, its original effort to bring AR to the Android platform. The main benefit of ARCore in comparison with Tango is not requiring specialized hardware, which makes it easier to bring it to more devices.

ARCore covers three broad functionality areas: motion tracking, surface detection, and light estimation. It is similar in scope to Apple’s ARKit, which recently reached version 1.5, adding the capability of placing objects on vertical surfaces as well as mixing 2D graphics into AR scenes.

You can download the ARCore SDK 1.0 from GitHub, which includes a C header file and a few samples of ARCore apps. ARCore requires Android 7.0.

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