More and more news keeps coming from Google I/O, and this time, the company is showing off its vision of how walking navigation could be made easier with the aid of Augmented Reality.
The new Augmented Reality Maps experience would analyze the user"s surroundings and determine their position in order to provide accurate and clear directions to help them get to their destination. To do this, Google developed what it"s calling VPS, Visual Positioning System, which improves upon the typical GPS experience by analyzing the landmarks around the user to determine the exact location.
Additionally, the experience could overlay places such as restaurants and businesses on top of the real-world images in the camera"s field of view, making it easier to find new places that might otherwise go unnoticed in real life. Google has also been experimenting with the idea of a guide in the augmented reality environment, which users would then follow to get to a particular location.
Note that this isn"t an official feature coming soon, but rather how the company envisions the experience could be. It could be a while before the features become available, and they won"t necessarily be available at the same time. It should go without saying that the feature is not meant for use while driving, which could cause significant damage.
Google has been quite busy with announcements today, ranging from new AI features for many of its services to a new developer preview of Android P. Google I/O will continue until May 10, and we can expect some more news in that time.
Via: Ars Technica