Introduction to Immersive View and Geospatial API
Google is introducing two latest features for Google Maps at its development conference, I/O 2022: Immersive View and the Geospatial API. These features might be crucial components of the augmented reality (AR) future. Immersive View is an approximation of a visible digital twin of the world, constructing upon the 3D view of larger cities or well-known landmarks familiar from Google Earth VR.
How Immersive View Works
The 3D perspective of the Immersive View is computer-generated. Google uses neural rendering to mix 2D satellite and Street View images into 3D scenes. Additionally, Google integrates visual real-time information into the 3D view, comparable to traffic and visitor volume or weather. Thanks to AI-supported rendering, Google may generate 3D spaces from 2D photos of restaurants, for instance. This allows users to dive into individual streets via Immersive View and navigate further into interior spaces – all in 3D.
Availability of Immersive View
According to Google, the brand new immersive view runs on every smartphone via "Immersive Stream" from the Google Cloud. However, it is offered immediately but initially just for chosen areas in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, London, and Tokyo. Other cities are to follow.
Google Maps as Digital Infrastructure
Immersive View shows that the Maps platform has long outgrown its status as a navigation app. Google now crawls the actual world as vigorously because it crawls the Internet. As a result, Maps is increasingly becoming a digital representation of the actual world, also generally known as the "AR Cloud" within the technical jargon of the augmented reality industry. This 3D coordinate system of the actual world is a fundamental constructing block for a shared AR future.
The Significance of Mastering the AR Cloud
Whoever masters the AR cloud could, for instance, determine – and receives a commission for – when and where audiovisual digital information appears in point of fact. Meta can be researching such a digital twin of the world with Live Maps, as is Niantic, but Google might be way ahead due to Maps Data.
Introducing the ARCore Geospatial API
With the "ARCore Geospatial API", Google is demonstrating the following step in the event of Maps towards the AR cloud at I/O. The programming interface allows developers to position digital content at real locations in 87 countries – without having to go to the actual place or physically scan it. In this fashion, developers can anchor digital games or exhibitions in fixed real-world locations which can be visible to anyone with a compatible smartphone.
How the Geospatial API Works
According to Google, the know-how from almost 15 years of Google Maps development flows into the brand new API. The AI-supported visual positioning method VPS, which is already used for AR navigation arrows in Maps, is meant to assist locate digital content as accurately as possible in point of fact. VPS, in turn, is predicated on images from Street View combined with AI image evaluation.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Google’s introduction of Immersive View and the Geospatial API marks a big step towards the event of a shared AR future. With these features, Google is poised to play a serious role in shaping the AR landscape. As the technology continues to evolve, it is going to be exciting to see how Immersive View and the Geospatial API are used to create latest and revolutionary experiences.
