Google’s New Pixel Phones Are “factory calibrated and optimized for AR”, Now With 60 FPS Tracking
Google says its specially calibrated Pixel 2 camera enables robust tracking, even in low-light conditions, allowing the phone to track the environment and render AR objects at 60 frames per second (FPS).
Apple made a similar claim when they unveiled the iPhone 8 last month, saying that each camera is “individually calibrated, with new gyroscopes and accelerometers for accurate motion tracking.” The new iPhone line also boasts 60 FPS tracking.
Featuring a single 12.2MP camera with f/1.8 aperture lens, Google’s Pixel 2 nearly matches the same portion of the spec sheet as iPhone 8’s 12MP camera with f/1.8 aperture lens, putting the two on par in terms of AR rendering ability, at least on paper.
Google’s AR function, thanks to the ARCore SDK, is said to support “millions of devices” capable of running Android 7.0 Nougat and above. Apple, with its ARKit SDK, has also said they’ve pushed AR to “hundreds of millions of iPhones and iPads” capable of running its newest operating system iOS 11, which includes pretty much everything back to the iPhone 5s and even the 6th generation iPod Touch.