Despite the fact that it was Apple who first announced their desire to develop augmented reality, Google managed to plug it in the belt. While the Cupertino-based company was working on improving the Ruler app and mastering the LIDAR technology, the search giant just took and showed that augmented reality can really be useful in everyday life. An excellent example of this is the ability to search Google for three-dimensional images of animals, place them right in your apartment, studying the features of their appearance and habits.
Want to see life-size animals? It's real
Animals 3D in Google
Google allows you to look in 3D not only animals, but also study anatomy
In fact, Google announced the appearance of a 3D zoo in Google search last year at the Google I / O conference, but then their range was rather scarce. Since then, the designers of the search giant have drawn many more shapes that are now available to everyone, well, or almost everyone. As a result, users can watch an alligator in 3D, a tiger in 3D, a shark in 3D, watch an octopus in 3D in Google and other animals.
Tell me, does it look like a real one?
What animals are on Google
- Alligator
- Angler (fish)
- Brown bear
- Cat
- Lynx
- Labrador
- Pug
- Rottweiler
- Duck
- Eagle
- Emperor penguin
- Goat
- Hedgehog
- Horse
- a lion
- Panda
- Macaw
- Raccoon
- Octopus
- Shark
- Scottish pony
- Snake
- Tiger
- Turtle
- Wolf
Less than a week after the 3D zoo feature launched, new animal models have appeared on Google. So far there are only four of them, but it is obvious that in the near future their number will only grow.
New animals in 3D from Google
- French Bulldog
- Cheetah
- Deer
- Pomeranian
As you can see, the list of available models is quite extensive and includes many popular animals. Nevertheless, it is obvious that it is too early to stop working on its expansion, because only the class of mammals consists of more than 5,000 species, not to mention reptiles, fish, worms and insects. This is a lot of work, since Google will not only have to digitize the figures, but also work out their smallest details, dimensions, habits and achieve a realistic effect, for example, getting rid of sinking into textures and other problems.
How to find 3D animal shapes on Google
Finding three-dimensional shapes of animals is quite simple. Google lets you access them directly from search.
- Enter the name of the animal from the list into Google, for example, 'tiger in 3d' or simply 'tiger'
- Scroll down the page to the tab with a proposal to view the life-size model of the animal and click 'View in 3D';
- In the window that opens with a three-dimensional figure of an animal, click on the 'Place at home' button;
Animals in augmented reality are pretty realistic
- Point the smartphone camera at the floor and turn it as shown on the screen;
- You can walk around the animal from all sides, approach and move away from it – it will not disappear, even if you move the camera to the side.
I tested the function of placing animals in 3D in augmented reality on three devices and came to the conclusion that this is not a story for everyone yet.
Animals don't work in augmented reality
On my iPad 2017, the tab with the three-dimensional shape of animals never appeared, regardless of the browser I was using. I tried to get the desired result in both Safari and Google Chrome, but it was all in vain.
On Honor View 20, which seems to be considered the flagship of last year and is equipped with quite powerful hardware, Google showed tabs for all animals. But whenever I clicked the Watch in 3D button, Chrome would throw an error. Then I tried to do the same through Yandex Browser, but I got the same result. Apparently, the smartphone is in conflict with the 3D figure. It is possible that Google has specifically blocked access to them for smartphones Huawei.
But on the Galaxy A51, everything went much better. In a matter of seconds, I was able to open the three-dimensional figure of a tiger and place it in the apartment. The model turned out to be quite realistic, but only from a distance. If you get closer to it, the picture began to grain like when using the digital zoom. However, I admit that it was just the hardware of the smartphone that could not cope with the processing of the figure.
What can I say? In fact, the idea of viewing animal figures in augmented reality is very cool and useful. This function will especially appeal to children who hardly had the opportunity to examine dangerous predators so closely and observe their behavior. Another thing is that due to the limitations of an unknown nature, not everyone will be able to test AR animals, and this is a shame.