🌐 Geospatial AR Turns The World Into A Canvas & Gorillaz Turned It Into A Stage
One of the coolest things I’ve had the opportunity to work on in my career is building a world-scale geospatial AR platform.
Creating immersive AR experiences in real life is no easy feat, but it's a lot easier when you have a strong foundation. While working on the Map the World team at Geo, this was our bread and butter — building a detailed, semantically rich 3D digital twin of the world with a truly world class team.
Our three years of hard work paid off at the recent Google I/O, where we launched global visual positioning (VPS) and 3D understanding for AR developers on iOS and Android. This API gives developers the tools to create increasingly realistic AR experiences that blend the physical and digital worlds and have a wide range of practical applications.
Enter Gorillaz — the OG virtual band that was doing digital avatars way before it was cool. Where the Geospatial API turns the world into a canvas, Gorillaz and their amazing team turned it into a stage:
The results are certainly larger than life, and illustrate the opportunities to layer delight on top of the real world, versus pulling people away from it. Check out the experience below:
This AR concert experience is just a glimpse of what creators and developers can do building on one of the most ubiquitous digital twins of the world — and I can’t wait to see what the community does next with it!
Very cool, congrats on the launch!