ARKit vs ARCore Side By Side Comparison
It should not be a surprise that Augmented Reality is slowly and surely entering the world of consumers. Companies like Apple, Google are trying to get a foot in a profitable territory. So it’s not a big surprise that Google presented its ARCore cunning just before Apple’s iPhone-8 and -X presentation.
Understanding Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality (AR) is the combination of virtual and real images in real time. AR is typically viewed with a “through” device. Even if there are already some Augmented Reality glasses and more are developed, there are currently simply no great candidates for the mass market. For this reason, we nowadays rely almost exclusively on portable devices such as smartphones or tablets to see the AR overlays in our world.
What are ARCore and ARKit?
ARCore is Google’s all-new SDK that aims to bring augmented reality capabilities to all smartphones running Android 7.0 Nougat and above. Much like Project Tango, the technology will work by detecting physical objects near the user to display augmented reality content. For this, ARCore will make use of the sensors in your smartphone to detect these horizontal planes, factor in the device’s motion tracking and, estimate the light entering a room so objects can be dynamically lit based on their environment.
Much like Google’s ARCore, ARKit is Apple’s first augmented reality software development kit offers developers the chance to easily create unparalleled augmented reality experiences for iPhone and iPad by blending digital objects and information with the environment around users. It is expected to come to all iPhones and iPads running on iOS 11 and above, and has been described by industry insiders as “the biggest thing that’s happened to the AR industry since it began”.
ARKit vs ARCore
Arcore
• Motion Tracking: By detecting key points in the room, objects can be displayed exactly in the room, even if you move. The movements of the device can thus be detected very precisely.
• Environmental understanding: The software detects where something is in the environment. Whether the viewing area is directed to a table or chair, the floor, or an object suspended from the ceiling.
• Light estimation: The dynamic calculation of the light incident helps the software to recognize how the embedded objects have to be “artificially” and dynamically illuminated.
• Android Compatibility: The ARCore technology can be scaled to all Android-based devices without additional hardware.
• Distribution: Since the toolkit is currently available as a preview version exclusively for smartphones with Android 7 Nougat, not all Android devices will benefit from the ARCore technology. According to the Google blog, however, the company hopes to support 100 million active devices by the end of the preview phase.
• Support: Unity, Unreal Engine, Android Studio.
Arkit
• Motion Tracking: Like Android, the ARKit recognizes certain points from the camera.
• Plane estimation with basic boundaries: Works just like Google’s solution. The software is able to detect different environments and levels.
• Ambient lighting estimation: The light is also recognized by Apple’s software to illuminate the virtual objects as realistically as possible.
• Distribution: No Android smartphones and tablets. ARKit runs exclusively on Apple devices with iOS 11 or higher. In terms of hardware, at least A9 family processors will be required to be able to use the augmented reality software. Since the devices sold millions of times and Apple customers are generally very happy with the update, the distribution should be initially much higher than ARCore.
• Support: Unity, Unreal Engine, SceneKit.
The Future of Augmented Reality
Virtual and augmented reality have often been described by tech enthusiasts and industry insiders as the next big thing in tech, although, they have failed to live up to the massive hype surrounding them thus far. Well, let’s hope the Google’s ARCore and Apple’s ARKit will bring a much required traction for the augmented reality.