How to produce life-sized 3D animal avatars via Google search
What's the story
In a bid to make information look-up even more engaging, Google is leveraging the power of augmented reality. The tech giant has added AR-capabilities into search, which you can use to produce life-sized 3D models of results, say certain objects and animals, in augmented reality. The capability has just started rolling out for select Android or iOS phones. Here's the way to use it.
Compatibility
Initial roll out for select smartphones
Before we start, it is important to note that the feature would work only on ARCore-ready Android phones and ARKit-ready iPhones. Also, as it is in the early stages of roll-out, not every search result would be reproduced in 3D. Currently, the option only works for certain animals, including a tiger, a lion, a giant panda, a rottweiler, a wolf, and a shark.
Steps
How to produce life-sized models
First, take an eligible device and search for any of the above-mentioned animals on Google. On the results page, you'll see a box with an animated avatar of the animal and an option to 'View in 3D'; tap on this option and Google will create an on-screen 3D model of the animal. Finally, click on the 'AR' tab to reproduce it in augmented reality.
Information
3D model is overlaid in surroundings
As the AR model is generated, the 3D image of the animal will appear overlaid in your surroundings (when seen from the camera). Notably, you can even take screenshots to save the picture of a wolf, shark, and tiger sitting in your backyard.
Twitter Post
Here's the complete process in action
It’s AR of the tiger!
— Google (@Google) May 31, 2019
If you’ve got an AR-enabled phone, you can now bring select animals right into your space for a safari (or safe snuggle) with Search. pic.twitter.com/kWpudETgeq
Advantage
Overall, the feature is pretty handy
With these 3D AR models, you can also truly examine the scale of these animals, something that could come handy in schools. Not to mention, Google plans to expand this capability for other purposes too, like reproducing musculature AR models for classroom studies or shopping products so that you could have a close look at a product before buying it.