Let’s start it with a basic question what is AR Cloud? Imagine a Scenario-You are on the way to attend a conference, so you start a bit early but unfortunately, you step into dog feces such that your shoes get spoiled. You don't have much time to go back home and change, so you search for nearby shops. Here comes AR Cloud into existence with which you could all do is to let the cloud to show you the nearest shops through any source like smartphones, AR glasses. It could also show the sizes and shoes before entering the shop which will make your process ease.
An AR Cloud is often referred to as a Digital Twin or a Digital Soft Copy of the real world which makes users convenient and accessible anywhere with any device. It can also be called as the 3D/Spatial map of the world.
Creator Of AR Cloud: It’s always great to follow pioneers behind the Tech. In that case, AR Cloud was Coined by ORI INBAR who’s the world leader of AR with founding Augmented World Expo as his achievements. Inbar ushered many companies into existence. So it’s high time to treat him great!!
The transformation of the business to interact and operate with customers and employers both in physical and digital forms increases the necessity of AR Cloud.
WHY AR CLOUD?
In current AR experiences all which last only for a short whereas AR cloud long lasts forever and can be accessed from anywhere.
An Open Alternative: There needs to be shared sets that benefit everyone since tech companies spend billions to build on AR Cloud datasets.
A Shared Point Of Reference: To seamlessly match the location we need a platform-agnostic index of any location in the real world.
Data Is Personal: AR Cloud is designed in a way that the data you contribute is used in a way that respects your privacy, dignity, and rights.
Data Is Valuable: The data you share is valuable which deserves benefit from sharing it.
HOW AR CLOUD IS MADE :
Point Cloud: For AR Cloud Point Cloud need to be persistent and always accessible and aligned with real co-ordinates and has to be in resolution to support occlusion and collision.
Scalable: AR Cloud has to infinitely scalable it has to support large spaces and connect such larger spaces into clusters. It must also allow users to continue to build and refresh over time while using apps built on top of it.
Ubiquitous Localizer: For AR Cloud the localizer and tracker must work anywhere on any angle on any multi-device.
Real-Time, Multi-User Interaction: It should allow interaction with many devices in real-time. It’s all like an MMO many users interact with each other with persistent content in real-time.
AR Cloud Use Cases
One of the most advanced AR-Cloud apps is Google’s AR navigation which supports Google’s Visual Positioning Service (VPS) and makes AR Cloud enable device location with higher accuracy than GPS. Google’s Just a Line game is also an example of an AR Cloud game.
Google Tango: Tango was an augmented reality computing platform, which is developed to provide detailed three-dimensional information about the environment.
AR indoor and outdoor navigation are one of the most promising cloud-based use cases. 6D.ai is an example of indoor navigation supporting AR Cloud. Scape Technologies, Visualix, YOUAR, and Ubiquity6 are also active in the space which offers SDKs for building cloud-based 3D-maps of the physical world by using mobile devices. Pokemon-Go is an AR game that cannot be forgotten.
Harvard Business School took a dive into AR Cloud to introduce in Sports, which could provide AR for coaches that could lead to unusual training techniques. During matches, coaches could use AR to visualize shooting percentages. Then, coaches could provide immediate feedback to the players. This brings a whole new level of competitiveness to sports.
“The journey toward scaled deployment of the AR Cloud has begun and numerous companies from tech giants to start-ups are starting to build ‘mini AR clouds’ and contributing to building a cloud-based 3D map of the real world. The synergy of numerous technologies, including computer vision, Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM), and connectivity are required to precisely localize devices in the environment and deliver sharable and persistent AR content,” says Eleftheria Kouri
What Could Drive AR Cloud:
Web AR, Depth Cameras on every smartphone, SmartGlasses, AR Cloud Standards like Open Source Mapping Services, Blockchain, and Investors, Startups, and Enterprises.
Overcoming Limits
5G connectivity improved AR devices, will contribute to the development and wider adoption of AR cloud-based applications. Creating real-time infrastructure requires robust computer vision technology which continuously collects and updates the spatial data while also differentiating between static and dynamic elements.
CONCLUSION:
AR remains a revolution waiting to happen. We have Apple’s ARKit and Google’s ARCore, both easy to develop-for AR platforms. AR Glasses have popped up here and there.HenceForth “Our Eyes will Always Focus On Real-World Rather Than Searching In The Web Browser.”
