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I am looking into how to incorporate Augmented Reality in a Responsive Web App. I am used to working with Google APIs, as I am using Maps, Graph etcetera. So I stumbled upon Arcore AR/ VR API. It is clear that this one is suited for Native Applications. It is not clear yet to me if it can also be used in Responsive Web Apps.

There is an Augmented Reality API for Unity, but this one also seems to be focused on Native Applications. I prefer to stay with Google, so is there a way to use Google Arcore API for Unity Vuforia for Web Apps?

If not, is there another AR/ VR API that can be used for Web? I know of AR.js, are there other good alternatives and is AR.js a good library? Is there anyone with bad experiences with this library?

I know it is a very general question, but I need this one answered before I can continue..

Niels Vanwingh
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AR frameworks generally have some basic device capability requirements to support the tracking, rendering etc. Beyond the obvious requirement for a camera, or some sort of video input, there is often the use of orientation sensors etc.

For example, Google says the following about certifying devices for ARCore support (at this time):

Certification is important because we want users to have a good experience with your AR application. This is primarily related to sensitive motion tracking, which is done by combining the camera image and the motion sensor input to determine how the user's device moves through the real world.

I am sure you are aware of this, but its worth mentioning in case there is any misunderstanding that a Web API would allow AR to work seamlessly across laptops, or lower end mobile devices etc.

VR, on the other hand, does not usually have as stringent requirements and there has been for a while an initiative to provide a Web VR framework - WebVR:

This has now evolved into WebXR, which is intended to cover both VR and AR, although the same caveats on device capabilities will still apply:

WebXR is new and evolving so finding support may be tricky - there are some examples here: https://immersive-web.github.io/webxr-samples/, but you may find you see this message more often than not:

enter image description here

At this time, for example, the latest version of Safari on latest version of OSX does not support it but Chrome on OSX will support.

If you are primarily interested in mobile devices, then React Native may be worth looking at - for example iOS ARKit support is available in this open library:

There is also a web triggered device specific support for Android viewing of AR models, although I suspect this is not what you are looking for:

One of the most interesting development and evolving areas in AR is 'Occlusion' - how one object may be in front or behind another real or AR object.

There is quite a bit of focus on this at the moment, both in SW and HW approaches. If the most popular, or powerful, solutions that emerge rely on some sort of device HW depth sensor in the future this may again restrict certain functionality to certain device types.

Mick
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