🌐 Geospatial AR Turns The World Into A Canvas & Gorillaz Turned It Into A Stage

One of the coolest things I’ve had the opportunity to work on in my career is building a world-scale geospatial AR platform.

Creating immersive AR experiences in real life is no easy feat, but it's a lot easier when you have a strong foundation. While working on the Map the World team at Geo, this was our bread and butter — building a detailed, semantically rich 3D digital twin of the world with a truly world class team.

Our three years of hard work paid off at the recent Google I/O, where we launched global visual positioning (VPS) and 3D understanding for AR developers on iOS and Android. This API gives developers the tools to create increasingly realistic AR experiences that blend the physical and digital worlds and have a wide range of practical applications.

Enter Gorillaz — the OG virtual band that was doing digital avatars way before it was cool. Where the Geospatial API turns the world into a canvas, Gorillaz and their amazing team turned it into a stage:

Source: Gorillaz, Rolling Stone

The results are certainly larger than life, and illustrate the opportunities to layer delight on top of the real world, versus pulling people away from it. Check out the experience below:

Bilawal "Billyfx" Sidhu @bilawalsidhu

The Geospatial API has turned the world into a 3D canvas for creators & developers. Just look at how Gorillaz used it to transform Time Square & Piccadilly Circus with their epic AR concert in NYC + London. Can't wait to see what the creators do next! #augmentedreality #metaverse

This AR concert experience is just a glimpse of what creators and developers can do building on one of the most ubiquitous digital twins of the world — and I can’t wait to see what the community does next with it!

🔗Learn about the Gorillaz AR experience here
🔗Learn about the ARCore Geospatial API here

🔗Want to dive deeper into the tech behind it? Watch this I/O talk: