apidays LIVE Paris 2021 - APIs and the Future of Software December 7, 8 & 9, 2021 Using AR Cloud Anchors APIs to unleash metaverse use cases Emmanuel Longere, AR/VR Strategist - creative technologist at Fabernovel

1. 20 min
Thursday 9th
December 2021
days

2. Metaverse and AR Cloud
Anchors
1

3. Today's AR experiences on mobile or headsets are often limited to the device.

4. Anchors are used to position virtual object in a physical world.
They are based on physical objects or location.
Cloud anchors are service/interface to store and share anchors on Cloud so they can be
accessible by anyone anytime.
It’s great for multiplayer and for accessing resources whenever we are at the same
place.
There are three main cloud anchors :
● Based on physical objects (through cloud points)
● Based on location and orientation
● Both
Use case : augmented directions, multiplayer AR game….

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6. Cloud Anchors according
to the GAFAM
2

7. Google has a SDK called ARCore to create Android and iOS
apps that use AR. For iOS it’s mainly a bridge between
ARKit and the Google Cloud Anchors.
This SDK includes the creation and management of Anchors.
Anchors are created with the position of the smartphone and
its camera that will identify its environment and created a 3D
map of it. The user will position a virtual object that will be
referenced with the 3D maps. This reference is the anchor.
Once an anchor is created, the app will call the ARCore Cloud
Anchor API to create a unique ID that matches the anchor.
All other users can access the Cloud anchor and see the virtual
object on it/on the same place, in the same app.

8. Apple offers two different frameworks to use anchors: ARKit
(using ARAnchors) and RealityKit (using AnchorEntity), the last
one being more high-level, more easy to describe a full AR scene.
For multiplayer usage, Apple advise to use ARWorldMap which is a
serializable object, easy to share between several devices, that will
place the user relatively to the detected anchors around them.
Contrary to Google, Apple recommends sharing ARWorldMaps
through P2P connections rather than on the cloud.
Also, Apple recently released a new
anchor kind, ARGeoAnchor, available
on ARKit 4 (since september 2020)
that will create anchors based on a
particular location. It not only relies
on GPS data, but also uses imagery
data from Apple Maps like buildings
around the scene for an optimal and
precise location.
This anchor allows to create AR
experience based on the location, by
anyone, anytime.
This new anchor is only currently
available in some US cities and in
London at this time.

9. Microsoft also has its own anchors called Azure Spatial Anchors.
They can be used to create AR app for Hololens, iOS and Android.
They can be used with the framework Unity, .Net, ARKit and ARCore.
They are based on the class CloudSpatialAnchor which creates an
anchor in the AR session of the phone and then sends it on Azure.
The anchors are based on what the phone sees and its location
(known as “Coarse relocalization”).
Anchors can have properties including an expiration date.
When another phone opens the AR app and calls the Azure Spatial
Anchors API, it can see the virtual objects linked to an anchor by 3
differents way :
● Identifier (I know the ID of the anchor)
● By other anchors I already know (it’s possible to create links
between anchors).
● By “coarse relocalization” (based on the GPS, the WiFi and
Bluetooth beacons).

10. Amazon service seems to currently be to the least developed
AR service among GAFAM. But, it is only one designed for web
usage.
The only service AWS propose is for creating 3D, AR and VR
experiences with a service called Sumerian.
It works for web browsers (HTML) (really intended for) as well
as Android and iOS apps with their respectively AR SDKs.
For mobile apps,
the Sumerian ArSystem
interacts with the AR SDK to
store and share anchor
created by the phone.
For both,
it uses a component called
ArAnchorComponent that
can be shared with Amazon
services.

11. Meta announced a few weeks ago new functionalities for their
Oculus headset to develop AR.
One of their announcement in the Insight SDK which allows
to use the Passthrough feature.
Developers previously had access to this in an experimental
form but it will move into general availability starting with the
next developer update.
This Insight SDK includes Spatial Anchors which gives
developers the ability to place virtual objects in the scene and
allow them to persist between sessions.
There is currently not much information about how their
anchors work but it seems to have the same functionalities as
the other companies.

12. Plus Minus
ARGeoAnchor allows to set outdoor
anchors with great precision.
ARWorldMap easily shareable between
two devices.
Only P2P is easily configurable for
sharing anchors.
ARGeoAnchor geographical availability
is limited (Paris not working for
instance at this time).
Apple-only devices.
Cloud Anchors work well, easily
shareable between iOS / Android.
Does not provide any framework for
actual multiplayer experiences at all.
Azure Spatial Anchors work well, easily
shareable between iOS / Android /
Hololens.
Provides functionalities to navigate
between several anchors easily.
Relies on imagery, WiFi, Bluetooth and
GPS.
Does not provide any framework for
actual multiplayer experiences at all.
Can be used to plug Google Cloud
Anchors or Azure Spatial Anchors (so
works well with iOS, Android and
Hololens), and has many easy to use
frameworks for multiplayer
experiences.
No P2P framework.

13. Testing Google Cloud Anchors
3

14. Test: Google Cloud Anchor with Unity
Unity App
(AR Foundation)
Google Cloud Anchor
iOS App
Android App

15. Experience: Google Cloud Anchor with Unity
Step 1: Create the Anchor

16. Experience: Google Cloud Anchor with Unity
Step 2: Retrieve the Anchor on other devices
iOS (iPhone 6S) Android (OnePlus 6)

17. Q&A
4

18. Thank you
Emmanuel LONGERE
AR/VR Specialist
emmanuel.longere@fabernovel.com
Bastien LECHER
AR/VR Specialist
bastien.lecher@fabernovel.com
Thibault FARNIER
AR/VR Software Engineer
thibault.farnier@fabernovel.com