vr chrome experiment

Google Chrome has fun new VR and AR features — here's how you can play with them

Google is experimenting with VR and AR — join in on the fun!

Google Chrome is now serving as the search-engine giant's guinea pig. A handful of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) experiments have hit Chrome's mobile web-browsing platform, and you can engage with them as we speak.

Google's WebXR experiments include four projects: Measure Up, Sodar, Floom and Picturescape. The first three are available for testing now, but users will have to be patient for Picturescape's arrival.

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Google dabbles in WebXR experiments on Chrome

WebXR is a melange between AR and VR on the web, and it makes things more fun, efficient and convenient. One of the experiments in Google's WebXR collection is MeasureUp, an app designed to measure the area, volume and length of any object. MeasureUp provides approximate measurements in inches or centimeters. It's worth noting that the final measurements vary from device to device.

A minute-long advertisement for Google's WebXR collection shows MeasureUp being used to as a digital ruler to determine the circumference of a traffic cone. Hell, you could use MeasureUp to figure out someone's height or even a gigantic tower, according to the commercial. 

The Sodar is another WebXR app that helps you answer the question, "What does six feet look like?" In our pandemic-affected world, you often see signs reminding you to keep six-feet away from others, but you may have trouble visualizing this. As such, Sodar swoops in to save the day — it's an app that tells you how far nearby humans are compared to your position.

It's likely that "Sodar" is a portmonteau of "social distancing" and "radar." Out of all the four Google WebXR offerings, MeasureUp and Sodar seem to be the most useful and practical apps.

Floom offers more fun than utility. The app is a "fun new way to explore the planet, built with WebXR and Google Maps," said Zebedee Pedersen, Google's Creative Technologist. Floom creates AR portals that spawn you to different foreign locations of the earth. 

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Finally, there is Picturescape, which is still under construction. Picturescape is a WebXR app that taps into your Google Photos library for an immersive, fun AR experience. Based on the footage in the commercial, Picturescape looks fascinating and I look forward to seeing the app come to fruition.

How to experiment with Google's new WebXR apps

In order to experiment with Google Chrome's new AR and VR features, you'll need an Android device that supports ARCore. Click here to find a list of ARCore-supported Android devices.

Next, you must make sure you're using the latest Chrome browser. Finally, you can check out Google's new WebXR collection at the following link: g.co/webXR .

Kimberly Gedeon, holding a Master's degree in International Journalism, launched her career as a journalist for MadameNoire's business beat in 2013. She loved translating stuffy stories about the economy, personal finance and investing into digestible, easy-to-understand, entertaining stories for young women of color. During her time on the business beat, she discovered her passion for tech as she dove into articles about tech entrepreneurship, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and the latest tablets. After eight years of freelancing, dabbling in a myriad of beats, she's finally found a home at Laptop Mag that accepts her as the crypto-addicted, virtual reality-loving, investing-focused, tech-fascinated nerd she is. Woot!

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The real surface of Mars. Recorded by NASA's Curiosity rover. Now in your browser.

About the experiment

Access Mars lets you explore a 3D replica of the Martian surface, exactly as it was recorded by the Curiosity rover. As Curiosity has travelled across Mars, it’s taken digital photographs with two stereoscopic camera systems. By combining and analyzing these photographs, scientists at NASA JPL have created a 3D model used to study Mars and plan future experiments. For the first time, this same 3D model is now available here for anyone to explore in their browser using WebVR.

Mapping the terrain

Image mosaics are captured with the left and right Navcam and Mastcam.

The two mosaics are then combined together to create a stereo match.

Using the data from the stereo match scientists are able to extract 3D mapping data.

Using metadata from the time, location, and direction the images were taken, scientists can tile the terrain data into a composite piece of terrain.

Introducing Katie Stack Morgan

As you explore the surface of Mars, you’ll learn about key points of interest from Katie Stack Morgan of NASA’s JPL. Since 2012, Katie has been working as a planetary geologist on the Mars Science Laboratory mission, analyzing Curiosity’s discoveries and planning future parts of the mission. Her primary focus is studying the geology of ancient Mars to learn what the planet may have been like in the past, and if it might have supported life.

Take a look at the code on GitHub . Check out more WebVR Experiments . Get the latest on Mars from NASA .

• 01; Landing Site; Photographed by Curiosity; Aug 7, 2012 - Aug 26, 2012
• 02; Pahrump Hills; Photographed by Curiosity; Feb 17, 2015 - Mar 11, 2015
• 03; Marias Pass; Photographed by Curiosity; May 22, 2015 - Aug 6, 2015
• 04; Murray Buttes; Photographed by Curiosity; Sep 1, 2016 - Sep 4, 2016
• 05; Current Location; Photographed by Curiosity; October 3rd, 2017

Google Chrome's WebXR experiments use AR to let you peer through the Earth

What you need to know

• Google has launched a collection of AR and VR experiments on Chrome.
• Sodar and Measure Up use AR to calculate distance and measure objects in your environment.
• Floom uses location data to let you peer through the Earth at a point on the other side.

Experiments with Google always shores up interesting projects from coders using a variety of Google products. Several months ago, the company celebrated 1 billion views of Billie Eilish's Bad Guy and created an endless video loop which could be interwoven with thousands of fan videos from YouTube using AI. Researchers also created an accessibility app that allows persons with disabilities to "speak" using just their eyes and smartphone. The latest collection of experiments brings some AR fun to your smartphone using the power of WebXR in your Chrome browser.

Augmented and virtual reality are opening up the possibilities of how we interact with the world and information around us. WebXR brings together AR and VR on the web to make them more convenient and widely accessible.

With Measure Up , you can take measurements of objects in your environment. You start at two points to create an x-axis measurement, which you can then expand into a flat, y-axis measurement or a three-dimensional z-axis measurement. Measure Up will provide approximate measurements in cm or inches, although it should be noted that the measurements will vary from device to device.

Sodar is a straightforward measuring tool, giving you a visual representation of a 6ft (2m) space around you, because you know, social distancing.

Floom is a bit more interesting. If you've ever imagined digging a tunnel to the other side of the world, this is the app that finally lets you do that.

Depending on the angle you point your phone, Floom will create an AR tunnel that will peer through the Earth and give you a bird's eye view of what's on the other side. The experience is powered by Google Maps and will even warn you if the area you're pointing at is on land or water.

Lastly, Picturescape will use your Google Photos library and turn it into an immersive AR experience, although this experiment is not yet available. For now, you can head over to the WebXR collections page to give the other experiments a spin. Any device that supports Google's ARCore will be able to try out these experiments, meaning you can use Chrome on even the best cheap Android phone to peer through to the other side of the Earth.

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Derrek is the managing editor of Android Central, helping to guide the site's editorial content and direction to reach and resonate with readers, old and new, who are just as passionate about tech as we are. He's been obsessed with mobile technology since he was 12, when he discovered the Nokia N90, and his love of flip phones and new form factors continues to this day. As a fitness enthusiast, he has always been curious about the intersection of tech and fitness. When he's not working, he's probably working out.

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Google launches a dedicated home for Chrome WebVR experiences

Today, Google made some WebVR updates to Chrome, adding support for Cardboard while also building a home for all of its online VR web content.

WebVR Experiments is a bit of a storefront for online VR experiences, albeit everything is free (at the moment) so it’s still more of a discovery tool. The page is launching with some cool (and bizarre) experiences that let you play VR ping-pong, endure a musical rainstorm and chase around a donut.

WebVR allows users to visit experiences on the web without having to download an app, this is great for checking out content spontaneously. Click a link, pop your phone in a headset and get to browsing.

By adding Cardboard support, Google has massively expanded the reach of the WebVR platform given that over 10 million Cardboard headsets are out in the wild.

WebVR for Chrome now supports Daydream, Cardboard and 2D view on desktop and mobile, so anybody should be able to check out the experiences. The team also gave an update for desktop Chrome support on other headsets like the Rift and Vive, which it said is “coming soon.”

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Konterball is a single or 2-player virtual reality game, built for the web as a Google VR Chrome Experiment.

madebywild/konterball

Folders and files.

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Try it here

Introduction

Konterball is a VR Chrome Experiment made by WILD . It's a ping pong game which can be played in one player mode or with a friend in realtime over the web. It was developed in order to showcase the latest Chrome browser which natively supports WebVR . You can play Konterball with a regular laptop, smartphone, Google Cardboard or Daydream, HTC Vive or Oculus Rift.

This repo contains the static frontend for the game. In multiplayer mode, it connects to a deepstream.io websocket server which is used to relay the communication messages two clients.

We use three.js for the graphics part, cannon.js as a physics engine, gsap and bodymovin for animations and howler.js for audio. This project also relies on the webvr polyfill to support browsers that don't natively support WebVR and webvr-ui for VR mode management.

Development

If you want to build this project, you first have to buy the used fonts (or use different ones). The fonts are available here and here . Place them into src/fonts with the names AntiqueOlive , Futura and FuturaItalic with the extensions .eot , .ttf , .woff , .woff2 and .json (you can convert them to json here ).

• Run npm install or yarn

Depending on whether you want to host a local deepstream server too:

• Run node deepstream.js
• Update availableServers in src/javascripts/communication.js , add localhost
• Run gulp production
• Server should now be available at port 8081, or whatever port you set in the PORT environment var.

As of 9/11/2018, the WebVR API is no longer supported so some features may not work as intended.

Contributors 4

• JavaScript 97.8%

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Experiments are projects that push the boundaries of art, technology, design and culture. Experiments inspire, teach, and delight.

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Browse the web in VR: Chrome launches on Daydream View

Jul 30, 2018

[[read-time]] min read

Chrome is built to be accessed across all types of devices and platforms, regardless of what operating system you’re on. And today, we’re launching Chrome on Google Daydream View and the Lenovo Mirage Solo with Daydream. So if you have one of these headsets, you can  launch Chrome directly from your homepage to browse and interact with any webpage while in VR.

All the features you love on Chrome , from voice search to incognito mode to fast search directly in your address bar, are now accessible on your Daydream headset. But we’ve also added a few Daydream-specific features, like “cinema mode” which optimizes web video for the best viewing experience in VR. With Chrome now integrated into Daydream, you can start browsing on your phone, whether it is reading your favorite news article or watching a YouTube video, and easily switch to your headset.

When you update to the latest version of Chrome on Android in Google Play , you can now launch Chrome from the home screen of your Daydream device.

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10 Cool Chrome Experiments You Should Try

1. The Searching Planet

Check out the experiment here .

2. 100,000 Stars

3. Kandinsky

Yet another Google creation, Kandinsky is a part of Google’s Chrome Music Lab: a chrome experiment aimed at teaching kids more about music compositions, harmonics and things related to sound. The Chrome Music Lab contains a lot of experiments aimed at increasing the user’s knowledge in a variety of sound related domains, ranging from music composition, to sound waves and harmonics.

4. Virtual Reality

5. 3D Periodic Table

6. Interstellar Endurance Exploration

Remember the Endurance ship from Interstellar ? Warner Bros., Xymatic & AvatarLabs co-created a Chrome experiment where the users can move around and explore the Endurance inside their web browsers. While the experiment is not too exciting, and not much happens inside the Endurance while the user is there, it definitely is something worth a try, especially for people who are very interested in exploring the Endurance far beyond what the movie showed.

7. WebGL Water

The scene is completely interactive, and even includes accurate raytraced reflections and refractions, analytic ambient occlusion, heightfield water simulation, Soft shadows and Caustics. The experiment goes to show just how powerful JavaScript and WebGL technologies are.

8. The Wilderness Downtown

• It uses multiple browser windows that are choreographed together to show different content in a way that it flows together and looks very cool.
• It uses the Google Street View and Maps API. These are used to tailor the short film to the user’s locality. The experiment actually shows street view images from the user’s neighbourhood (or city), in a way that it looks tied into the film itself.

Check out the experiment here .

9. Browser Ball

10. Cube Slam

Yet another experiment created by Google, Cube Slam is a pong-like game where you have to disable the shields on the opponent’s side. Now, this might not sound exciting enough, but Cube Slam adds another awesome feature to the game. Users can play this game over the internet with their friends , and the game actually displays their friend’s webcam feed on the screen while they play, giving the impression of actually playing face to face against your friend, which makes the entire experience a lot more fun.

Chrome Experiments: Pushing JavaScript to its Limits

Akshay Gangwar

Greetings, tech titans and fellow literary time-travelers! I'm Akshay, your tech-whisperer and Harry Potter's number one stalker – seriously, don't ask me how many times I've read those books; it's borderline unhealthy. Working in the tech journalism industry since 2016, I have 7 years of experience covering everything from technology news, to well-researched resource articles. Now the Content Strategist at Beebom, I often pen down op-eds for our website, sharing expert commentary on the latest in technology, AI, and electric cars.

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