Lens is an app by Google that can recognise objects, like books and monuments. Currently, it is available only to Pixel users in US, UK, Australia, Canada, India, and Singapore.
Rajan Patel, the engineering lead for lens, just tweeted “Shopping in the works. Natural world improvements coming. Team just sent me an amazing new OCR model. Experimental AR experiences coming as well…”
This would lead to a more optimised overall experience in terms of character and object recognition. For example, it could recognise the flora and fauna and show information about it, or recognize products and apparel and show prices for comparison and purchase.
The optical character recognition will enable the app to function better ‘under the hood’ and recognize the text better.
And though it is still unclear what kind of an AR experience Google has in store for us, it is certainly going to be more than stickers.
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So essentially, we will have an app that could revolutionize the way we interact with everyday objects and make mixed reality more relevant to the needs of an average smartphone user.
The app is still a prototype, made for the users to experiment with the technology and the launch and availability have been planned accordingly.
It is an exciting time for enthusiasts of extended reality as most tech giants rush to adopt extended reality in their applications. Google has already been playing around with the concept of AR and just introduced AR stickers on its first app built on ARCore for the Google pixel.
Using the app “Users can team up with “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” characters like BB-8 and R2-D2, or even stage fun moments with Eleven, the Demogorgon, and other characters from Netflix’s ‘Stranger Things’.
We can’t wait for the app to be made available on other android handsets and for what’s to come next on Google AR.