Remember your first AR? It was a completely new experience. Even if it was something unintelligible in poor quality, it was still inscribed in the real world. It was really interesting and unusual. Now we are already a little used to it, but still we are always happy to play with something new. Moreover, this is exactly a toy. I cannot name it otherwise. Even the animals that Google allowed to place in our homes is nothing more than entertainment. Still, its popularity breaks all records and forces people to share results on social networks. Someone has a tiger in the corridor, someone has a parrot on the table, and someone has a penguin in the refrigerator. But it doesn't work for everyone. What's wrong with them?
You can see such a cheetah in your room.
By the way, the popularity of the new Google service is so high that we even argued with Ivan Kuznetsov whether his article about animals could get more views than the previous record holder. So far, the results are very solid.
How to watch animals in 3D on your phone
Let me briefly remind you how to view 3D animal models without leaving your home during large-scale self-isolation of citizens in the context of the coronavirus pandemic.
To do this, enter the name of one of the supported animals in a Google search, scroll down a little and press “view” in a special block. After that, point your smartphone to a room where there is at least some free space, move your smartphone a little as shown on the screen, and you will get a full-size model of the animal in AR.
When watching, the smartphone will even make sounds through the built-in speakers or headphones. If you want to try it, now is the time. Also, before that, you can read the very article by Ivan Kuznetsov, in which the process is shown in more detail.
For now, I'll tell you why this does not work on some smartphones. I ran into this problem myself, trying to run the service on several smartphones, but couldn't find an answer straight away. I will save you from a long search.
You can't look at animals like that. This is Huawei P40 Pro and is not supported by the service.
Why 3D animals don't work on my phone
First of all, it is worth understanding whether you were looking for the right one. No need to write in the search for “tiger in 3D”. This will only offer you graphics models. You just have to write “tiger”, “cheetah”, “parrot” or other names of supported animals. In this case, right after the article from Wikipedia, there will be the desired block.
If you did everything right, but instead of augmented reality, you just see an animal on a white background, most likely something is wrong with you. The problems may be as follows.
First of all, you need to check your smartphone for compliance with Google's requirements, which are listed on a special page. They look like this:
- signed in to your Google account;
- has ARCore certification;
- at least 1GB of free space available;
- at least one AR app installed
- the device is connected to a mobile network without traffic charging.
If everything is fine with this, there can be only one problem – you have the wrong smartphone. The list of devices on which viewing of animals in 3D is available is given on this page. For your convenience, I have collected all supported models in a few screenshots below.
If your smartphone is on the list, but the animals are still not displayed, check how you see permissions on your smartphone. You must grant media access and access permissions in the smartphone camera. This can be done in the settings. Section “Applications”, then again “Applications” or “All applications” (depending on the manufacturer of the smartphone), then select your browser and select “Rights” inside. After that, we give the necessary permissions by clicking on them.
Displaying animals should only work in Google Chrome, but users say it works for them in other browsers as well. It didn't work out for me, so I can't confirm it.
What AR is for
At the very beginning, I already said that while AR is really more of a toy than a really applicable thing. On the other hand, the same animals that can be shown to a child not in the zoo or in pictures are not very bad.
So far, the most practical use of AR is to do Apple. More precisely, what she continues to push the industry to. I'm talking about viewing products from a store in augmented reality. For example, this is how you can see what the new Mac Pro looks like on your desk even before you pay several thousand dollars for it. Or, for example, check how the bike that you choose for yourself will look from different angles.
It is no longer just toys. But with augmented reality that will take to the streets, I disagree a little. I don’t want to go in special glasses and look around at the ads that come out in augmented reality mode. It seems to me that this technology should be exclusively in a closed area. For example, being in the palace-museum it is interesting to watch how the kings hosted banquets 300 years ago. Or, as in the theater, effects appear during a performance.
After that, I want to take off my glasses and enjoy the real world. There are fewer questions about virtual reality. You don't immediately perceive it as something real and just look like a cartoon or an immersion in the world of a computer game. This has its charms, but this is already a topic for a big separate conversation.