Augmented Reality Comes to Museums with GuidiGO AR Composer

We are excited to announce the release of our new Augmented Reality product AR Composer which runs on the Google Tango platform. We have already had the opportunity to showcase this technology at several museums (like the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, in Barcelona).

GuidiGO AR Composer opens up incredible new opportunities for museums and cultural sites, as they can now design their own AR experiences in just a few simple steps, and make them available on site or for remote use by schools and other educational institutions.

Unlike virtual reality, Augmented Reality is not designed to immerse you in an entirely different environment” says GuidiGO CEO David Lerman, “AR integrates virtual elements into the real environment, and allows you to interact with them as you move around. You can physically feel the presence of AR objects, particularly when they appear in real size. The applications for Augmented Reality are actually quite different from virtual reality, but no less fascinating and engaging for users. Just look at the excitement around Pokémon GO!

This is a great opportunity to reach an even wider audience, including the digital generation, who are looking for new experiences. AR Composer is also an extraordinary educational tool capable of engaging different types of visitors as they explore permanent collections or temporary exhibitions.

GuidiGO AR Composer: How does it work?

GuidiGO AR Composer makes it possible to create experiences in augmented reality using virtual components. The Tango tablet works as a viewfinder to position virtual objects on the ground or anywhere else, with no need for markers or signals of any kind. The settings and location of the virtual objects are saved as soon as they are placed. They are then visible to visitors just like any real object.

Composants virtuels en AR

A virtual 3D object can be static, animated, or interactive. It can be a character, an entire scene, a sound, or a visual hotspot, depending on the experience created by the museum.

GuidiGO AR Composer makes full use of Tango capabilities, including motion tracking, which enables virtual objects to behave as if they were real. For example, virtual objects increase in size as you approach them, and you can walk around them to get a closer look from any angle. It is also possible to interact with them, as you can see in this video where a dinosaur roars when the visitor approaches.

Ready-to-Go AR Plugins

Just like GuidiGO Studio, AR Composer is extremely user-friendly and doesn’t require special skills or training. Using presets or custom plugins, museums and cultural sites can quickly create a variety of experiences in which their visitors will see the real and virtual blend together seamlessly. For example, museums will be able to:

  • Geolocate and guide visitors using a virtual path that appears at their feet:
    GuidiGO_Tango_AR_Directions
  • Leave comments about a place, or work of art, using AR hotspots:
    AR Hot Spots
  • Create a Pokémon GO-style treasure hunt, inviting visitors to explore and collect virtual objects they find in the galleries:
    Treasure Hunt in AR
  • Share works that are missing from the collection, whether they are on reserve, being restored, or on loan… or simply too fragile or too large to be displayed in public,
  • Place a work in its original context – for example, making an entire temple appear where only an ancient column remains,
  • Compare a work to its previous version, or to the artist’s preliminary sketches,
  • Take complex mechanisms apart and put them back together again to see how things work, whether it’s a machine, a process, the human body, the solar system, etc.
  • Make virtual characters move around in front of the visitor,
  • Recreate the décor and atmosphere of an entire room by superimposing its former or future state on top of its current reality:
    Tango AR scene mapped

And any other applications imaginable…

First Tango Smartphones Available

The Phab2 Pro, the first smartphone to feature Tango technology, is available at the Lenovo shop.
lenovo-Phab2-pro-phone

This new type of smartphone is the first step in a major technological breakthrough. Tango makes it finally possible to create AR experiences without using markers or any kind of infrastructure. In other words, there’s finally a mobile device that sees like we do.

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