Chapter 8. Recognizing the Environment

Throughout this book, we have looked at the numerous ways of how our device, with the help of ARCore, can track the user, understand the user's world, and render an alternate reality. ARCore uses the device's sensors and camera as inputs to constantly update what it perceives as the user's real world. However, what if we wanted to do more for the user; perhaps identify a certain object, sign, or landmark? That would require a much more advanced set of tools. Even just 5 years ago, this would seem like an incredibly daunting task. With the advent of OpenAI, thanks to Mr. Musk, many other companies have started to open source and make their tools available. This has led to phenomenal explosive growth in these technologies, colloquially referred to as Machine Learning (ML), and broadened their accessibility to everyone. Fortunately, for those interested in developing AR apps, this is a good thing. We want all the help we can get when it comes to recognizing...