The Olympic Games in your living room: how to see the athletes in 3D with Google’s augmented reality

Are not 3d animals, but Olympic athletes who, in addition to be able to see compete, you can bring yourself to your living room with the magic of augmented reality. Google has incorporated nine Olympians to the list of items you can see with augmented reality from the browser.

The concept is the same as always, but now focused on the Olympics and with a number of different movements for each athlete. As always, you can take photos or record videos of these animated athletes integrated into the environment with the mobile camera and the Google’s augmented reality system.

Which 3D athletes are available

To bring an Olympic athlete to your home, all you need is an Android mobile with Google Chrome and, if possible, with support for ARCore, Google’s augmented reality. If the mobile does not support ARCore, you can still view the 3D animated models, but they will not be integrated into the environment using the mobile camera.

All you have to do is open Google Chrome and search for the athlete’s name. A lot of information will appear, related news, web pages … Scroll through the results until you see the box View in 3D.

Now, what athletes are available? At the moment there are nine in different disciplines and from different countries. Unfortunately there are no Spanish athletes, although it is always possible that they will be added later. These are the athletes with 3D models on Google, and whose names you should look for:

• Alexander Massialas

• Simone biles

• Dina asher-smith

• Naomi osaka

• PV Sindhu

• Megan rapinoe

• Leticia Bufoni

• Niklas Kaul

• Caeleb Dressel

Check all the movements

A novelty of these athletes in 3D compared to previous ones 3D objects available in Google search is that each of the athletes has a handful of signature moves. You can access them by tapping on the running person icon, or by sliding the bottom panel up.

For example, in the case of Naomi Osaka you can choose between service, shooting or exchange animations. In most cases there are three animations, although the German Niklas Kaul has seven animations with different Decathlon disciplines.

Olympic athletes in augmented reality

If your mobile supports augmented reality, you will see a button called See in your space. After pressing it, the Google application may ask for your permission to access the camera and storage. Then you must move the mobile slightly so that it analyzes the space and can position the athlete correctly.

If everything went well, you will see your favorite athlete wherever you point with the camera. You can move and reposition as you like, until it becomes a giant. If you prefer a bit more realism, a button appears called See in real size, which resets the scale to standard values.

From the augmented reality view you can also switch between the different movements and, of course, you can take photos by tapping on the shutter button or record videos by holding down the button.

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The Olympic Games in your living room: how to see the athletes in 3D with Google’s augmented reality

was originally published in

Engadget Android

by
Ivan Ramirez

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