Apple and Google have successively launched AR development tools, which not only drive the development of the entire industry but also begin to quietly change traditional industries. The most notable is AR marketing. Blippar, a British company founded in 2011, first became famous for AR advertising. In 2015 and 2016, the company received $45 million and $54 million in funding respectively.
Recently, Blippar released a new AR navigation app called AR City, but it's not the kind of navigation we're used to.
In a blog post on its official website, Blippar wrote that the app involves AR and computer vision technology, helping users navigate over 300 cities worldwide. In particular, in selected locations, they combine Urban Visual Positioning with AR to achieve more accurate positioning than GPS. Users can point their phones at nearby buildings to see the building's name in real time.
Last year, Leiphone discovered that Baidu Maps navigation software in China launched an AR mode. When navigating outdoors in real time, users can enable AR mode, where virtual direction arrows are overlaid on the real road surface, allowing users to clearly see the road conditions.
The phone displays the building's name The phone displays the building's name
What makes this AR City app (currently in beta) different?
Leiphone found that Blippar mentioned three aspects of AR City's functionality:
Basic AR navigation: Display road information in AR mode;
Rich map content: Display AR information about the user's location, such as the street and scenic spots;
Urban Visual Positioning (UVP): Use computer vision to recognize, locate, and determine direction information. However, this feature is currently only available in central London, San Francisco, and Mountain View, USA.
The blog post specifically introduced that the AR navigation feature can be used anywhere, supported by Apple Maps. They use GPS to calculate your location, and then the phone's VIO can track your movement. Blippar integrates GPS and VIO into the entire experience through its ARCL library, where VIO uses Apple's ARKit tool and GPS uses Core Location (a framework in iOS SDK that provides device location).
The map now covers over 300 cities worldwide, displaying information including street names, building names, and local scenic spots. That is, when you can't tell north from south, you can use AR City to learn the names of nearby buildings. Combined with traditional route navigation, you will see the direction you are walking more clearly. This is a great benefit for people with poor sense of direction.
UVP system developed using computer vision UVP system developed using computer vision
Blippar said all information will be integrated into the Visual Knowledge Graph. In the future, they will also share the Visual Knowledge Graph with third-party partners. However, AR City can only recognize buildings and streets in sight, not those that are hidden.
In central London, San Francisco, and Mountain View, USA, AR City also includes the Urban Visual Positioning (UVP) function. In addition to recognizing buildings, this function provides richer information. UVP is more accurate than GPS positioning, which has an error rate of about 16.
Leiphone thinks that for many people with poor sense of direction, even if they can't tell north from south, they probably won't get lost with the help of landmark buildings. In the long run, Blippar probably wants to achieve an AR version of Dianping. Whether it's tourist attractions or restaurants, just take out your phone to identify surrounding information in the real environment, which will also make it more convenient for people to travel.
