Introduction to Augmented Reality Apps
Warmer weather is coming, the times are getting longer, and we’re all beginning to enterprise outside more—depending on which hemisphere you reside in, and what your local coronavirus restrictions appear like, in fact. If you’re going to be exploring more of the nice outdoors in the approaching months, these augmented reality apps provide you with more reasons to go away the home (and make doing so more fun).
Navigation and Exploration
Exploring the world is rather a lot more fun with the appropriate tools installed in your smartphone. There are several apps that may enhance your outdoor experience, making it more enjoyable and interactive.
Spyglass
Spyglass is basically a GPS and compass navigation tool, but the way in which its features are implemented means it’s far more appealing than your standard mapping app. It works offline, it’ll track your pace and altitude, it may well log waypoints as you go, and many more besides. As far because the augmented reality features go, you possibly can overlay the compass on top of whatever your camera is seeing in front of you, see the present position of the sun as you progress your phone around, and even use the AR capabilities to search out your way around using the celebrities.
PeakVisor
PeakVisor’s mission is to aid you discover mountains that you simply come across in your travels. You can point it at a spread in front of you and discover which summit is which, due to the magic of AR. The app should at the very least ensure that you simply don’t spend half a day mountaineering up the improper trail, and find yourself at the highest of the improper mountain peak. If you don’t know what a selected peak is known as, you possibly can simply point your phone’s camera at it to search out out, and the app gives you elevation readings and data about different ranges as well.
World Around Me
If you’re in an unfamiliar a part of the world (and even a well-recognized one), then sometimes you never know what’s across the corner—and that’s where the World Around Me (WAM) app can come in useful. It works like a mapping app in the way in which it directs you toward places of interest, but you access all the things through your phone’s camera and the facility of AR. Whether you’re searching for a landmark, a restaurant, or an ATM, just scan your surroundings with WAM and also you’ll give you the chance to see what’s nearby.
Social Media and Gaming
There are also several augmented reality apps that could make your outdoor experience more social and fun.
Snapchat
Everyone’s heard of Snapchat, though you would possibly not have realized the extent of the AR features inside it. You can summon up every kind of animations, stickers, effects, creatures and characters in augmented reality, then use them to adorn the photos and videos you send. If you wish your social media posts to face out, that is one method to do it. The AR lenses and effects which can be available to you in Snapchat rotate over time, they usually’re sometimes depending on where you might be on the planet.
Lines Of Play
Lines of Play is an interesting little experimental app from Google to point out off among the capabilities of ARCore on Android—so it’s not available on iPhones, unfortunately. The app allows you to drop in augmented reality blocks on top of the true world and have some fun with them. On your next jaunt outside, you possibly can arrange a series of coloured blocks and have them fall one after one other, domino-style.
Jurassic World Alive
What’s not to love about dinosaurs rampaging around your neighborhood? You don’t must be a fan of the movie franchise to enjoy Jurassic World Alive, even though it definitely helps—you make progress by exploring your local surroundings and discovering recent dino DNA, and it’s then as much as you to coach and develop your dinosaur team contained in the app. You can put your creatures into battles with other players, share your augmented reality creations on social media, or simply challenge yourself to develop one of the best crew of dinosaurs possible.
Education and Learning
There are also several augmented reality apps that could make your outdoor experience more educational and informative.
Star Chart
You don’t must limit your outdoor adventuring to simply the daytime in fact, and for those who’re out within the evening or at night, then Star Chart offers you an augmented reality guide to the heavens above you. Just point your mobile device on the sky, and also you’ll see labels next to stars, constellations, and planets as you progress the point of view around. If you desire to dig deeper into information concerning the universe, then Star Chart will help here, too: You’re not only limited to learning concerning the celestial view in front of you, because Star Chart can take you on a tour across the galaxies.
Google Maps
You may already be taking Google Maps around with you in your travels, but ensure you’re fully aware of the AR elements you’ll find inside it. We’re mostly talking concerning the Live View a part of the walking navigation mode—you’ll see a button to launch Live View at the underside of the screen if you search for walking directions within the app. You may enable Live View when you’re actually mid-navigation, just by tapping the icon on the map.
Zombies, Run!
Zombies, Run! is a component exercise app, part AR experiment, and part zombie game, and it someway pulls off that combination. In this case, the AR isn’t actually overlaid on top of your phone’s camera; it’s coming through your headphones in the shape of an audio adventure you’re in the midst of. The goal is to finish missions, collect supplies, and more. Get your running gear on, load up the sport, and get outside. If the considered undead hordes chasing after you doesn’t improve your average running times across the block, then it’s possible that nothing will.
Conclusion
These augmented reality apps can enhance your outdoor experience, making it more enjoyable, interactive, and informative. Whether you’re searching for navigation tools, social media apps, or educational experiences, there’s something for everybody. So why not give them a attempt to see how they’ll transform your outdoor adventures? With the appropriate apps, you possibly can turn your outdoor experiences into something truly unique and memorable.
