Chrome OS ARCore Support May Arrive Soon

Launched earlier this year, ARCore is Google’s augmented reality platform that enables developers to build AR apps. It uses three key technologies to place AR objects in the real world using the phone’s camera which include motion tracking, light estimation, and environmental understanding. ARCore already supported a handful of Nougat-powered devices at launch such as Google’s Pixel smartphones and the Galaxy S8 lineup however the company is yet to confirm if it will add support to Chrome OS. New evidence has surfaced which suggested that the Chrome OS ARCore support might arrive in the future.

Since ARCore is software-based, it can be expanded quickly to existing devices. For example, the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ don’t have ARCore support at launch but it has already been confirmed that they will receive it in the next couple of weeks.

A new commit has been spotted in the Chromium Gerrit, which is the code review website for Chrome OS and Google Chrome, which mentions a refractor to add “support [for] ARCore.” It specifically decribes a process for creating ARCore devices via WebXP API which is a web framework for VR and AR content.

It’s quite likely that Chrome OS ARCore support is not meant for Chromebooks as the technology can’t track facial expressions or replicate head movements. It uses the aforementioned technologies to place virtual objects on vertical and horizontal planes. To that end, it appears that Chrome OS-powered tablets might be the beneficiary of ARCore support and we can expect more of them to arrive in the future as Acer has already launched one not too long ago.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Gadgets
Tags: ARCore, Augmented Reality (AR), chrome os, Google