Getting Started

Welcome to the world of immersive computing and augmented reality with Google ARCore. In this book, we will start with the basics. First, we will cover the basics of augmented reality (AR) on some important core concepts. From there, we will cover the installation and basics of the three development platforms (Android, web, and Unity) that we will use throughout the book. Next, we will take a more in-depth look at the technical challenges faced by AR developers, including various solutions techniques and for solving them. In the final chapters of the book, we will expand on those skills by developing three example AR and mixed reality (MR) apps, where we will build a Machine Learning object recognizer, an AR Designer app, and an app that transitions from AR to MR.

We decided to omit the Unreal platform from this book, not because it is an inferior platform, but quite the opposite. Unreal is a proven and cutting-edge game engine that is well suited for experienced graphic and game developers. However, Unreal and Unity are essentially on par for development features. Therefore, it made more sense to focus on Unity, which is far better suited for learning game and graphic development.

In this chapter, we will begin by quickly covering the fundamental concepts of immersive computing and augmented reality. Then, we will look at the core problems ARCore is designed to address (motion tracking, environmental understanding, and light estimation). Here's a quick look at the topics we will cover in this chapter:

• Immersive computing
• ARCore and AR
  • Motion tracking
  • Environmental understanding
  • Light estimation
• The road ahead

This book was written with a beta version of ARCore. If you find something different or something that needs to be changed, contact Packt with your errata.