Looking to mix physical and digital spaces, Google has released a beta SDK for augmented reality, dubbed ARCore, that is focused on bringing augmented reality (AR) to Android smartphones.
ARCore is built on Google’s Tango AR technology. Developers can build new AR apps or enhance existing ones with AR capabilities. (Apple’s forthcoming iOS 11 has augmented reality APIs as well, called ARKit.)
ARCore works with Java and OpenGL as well as with the Unreal and Unity AR technologies.
At the outset, ARCore will run on devices running Android 7.0 Nougat and later. Google is also offering prototype browsers for web developers to build AR-enhanced websites; the prototype browsers can run both Google’s ARCore and Apple’s ARKit.
