As each day passes, we see innovations from AR, and the surprises just keep on coming. The feature that we are talking about isn’t something groundbreaking, but a utility that we all wished we had – A virtual tape measure. You don’t need measure tape when you have ARCore compatible phones, you just need to download the Measure App from Google PlayStore. Google Measure App can be helpful for fast and easy measurements of objects around your house or office just like a measure tape.
Honestly, if we want to measure something right before us and we do not have a scale or measuring tape thing can get a bit awkward. We turn to non-conventional means of measuring using our body part as a reference. Now android has something that will save us from all those embarrassments. It is an AR app can measure lengths in real-time using our phone’s camera named Measure. This tech is a result of Android’s AR development kit called ARCore.
But if you think Google is the one to get an app like this to mainstream users, then you would be wrong as Apple was first to the scene. Technically, Google had a similar app back in 2016. This version of the app was a part of the Tango project. However, Google’s Tango project was not a feasible one because it demanded beefy hardware specs from phone manufactures.
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With the new ARCore, Google can run the app on many of the high-end and mid-range phones. So if you have an ARCore supported device, you are good to go. Since Apple is bringing its own measuring app in iOS 12, Google has optimized it further and made it ready for use.
Using the Measure app is very straightforward. You just need to open the app and point the camera towards what you want to measure. In the app UI, there are Length and Height measuring tools. You can select any one of them and determine endpoints. Although, you need to move the camera in a certain orientation for the app to map the surrounding and get things ready.
Take into account that these measurements come with a degree of error and the app itself shows you the error range. The margin of error is proportional to the length being measured.
Although, there is some incompatibility with Samsung phones that even extends to the latest S9. Since the software is fairly young, we can expect Google to fix this in the future.