Google Maps gets augmented reality search results

Open the live view and you can search for things (at the bottom) such as restaurants, ATMs and shops. (Next in the gallery is Google's animated gif in action.) Google

Look at this! POI markers positioned in 3D in your camera view. Now we just need AR glasses. Google

Google Maps loves augmented reality. After launching augmented reality walking navigation in 2019 and indoor AR navigation in 2021, it now displays augmented reality search results.

Augmented reality search results will place markers in your video stream, positioned in 3D space. It's a dream interface for augmented reality glasses, but for now it will only work on a phone.

As usual for Maps AR features, this will be powered by Google Maps VPS or "Visual Positioning System". It's a camera-powered location system: you turn on the camera, point it at the world, and your camera feed is compared to Google's huge collection of Street View data to determine your location. This is an extremely data-intensive way to determine location, but is much more accurate in orientation and street-level location than a phone compass and GPS, both of which are prone to interference.

As Google said in that original post, "Location accuracy through VPS is greatly affected by the quality of both the imagery and the location associated with it." This AR feature is therefore being rolled out on a limited basis in just a few cities: London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Paris, and Tokyo. Google announces that it will be released on Android and iOS "in the coming months".

Ad image by Google / Ron Amadeo