Apple AR Maps in Tokyo

In 2021, Apple first introduced AR navigation to its Apple Maps app, allowing iOS users to navigate their real-world environment using virtual overlays. Like Google Maps’ Live View, users can use their smartphone’s camera to follow a series of virtual arrows leading to their desired location.

Recently the company’s AR walking guidance feature has arrived in Tokyo, Japan, offering local iOS users a new way to navigate their labyrinth-like city. The news was first reported by Alta Distance, who discovered the feature yesterday after spotting the ‘Refine Location’ icon on their app.

More information:

https://vrscout.com/news/explore-tokyo-using-ar-technology-powered-by-apple-maps/

Lightship Visual Positioning System for AR

Niantic launched its Lightship Visual Positioning System (VPS) which aims to form an underlying 3D map of the world so that AR devices can share the same frame of reference even on massive scales. With a shared understanding of where devices are, Niantic expects that its platform will enable developers to build location-based, persistent, and multi-user AR experiences using the underlying VPS map which will hopefully one day span the globe.

Although Niantic has been pitching is Visual Positioning System as a world-scale solution for syncing AR content between devices, out of the gate it will be much more limited. For now, the system is only approaching city-scale as the company says it will initially function only at certain Niantic Wayspots in select cities. The company plans to expand coverage of the Visual Positioning System by crowdsourcing mapping data from the devices that use it.

More information:

https://www.roadtovr.com/niantic-launch-lightship-visual-positioning-system-vps-this-month/

Qualcomm’s Latest AR Glasses

Qualcomm has revealed its latest AR glasses reference design, which it offers up to other companies as a blueprint for building their own AR devices. The reference design, which gives us a strong hint at the specs and capabilities of upcoming products, continues to lean on a smartphone to do the heavy compute, but this time is based on a wireless design. Qualcomm’s prior AR glasses reference design was based on the Snapdragon XR1 chip and called for a wired connection between a smartphone and the glasses, allowing the system to split rendering tasks between the two devices.

Now the company’s latest design, based on Snapdragon XR2, takes the wire out of the equation. But instead of going fully standalone, the new reference design continues to rely on the smartphone to handle most of the heavy rendering, but now does so over a wireless connection between the devices. In addition to Snapdragon XR2, the AR glasses include Qualcomm’s FastConnect 6900 chip which equips it with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. The company says the chip is designed for ultra-low latency and manages less than 3ms of latency between the headset and the smartphone.

More information:

https://www.roadtovr.com/qualcomm-xr2-ar-glasses-reference-design/