While 360-degree video has offered a route in to creating for virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) largely remains the province of professional developers. In an attempt to democratise the AR space and open it up to more creators, a free class is being offered on Coursera for those interested in getting started with AR development.
Coursera is an online learning platform that was founded in 2012 by professors at Stanford University. Since then, it has become widely respected by educators and offers users the chance to learn online and accumulate credits from well-known universities and get accreditation from leading companies like Google and IBM.
The new Coursera class in AR is titled ‘Introduction to Augmented Reality and ARCore’ and has been tailored towards those who are just getting started with AR technology. The course was designed for those with little to no prior knowledge and experience of AR app creation.
The course takes about 15 hours to complete, and at the end students can expert to have learned the basics of AR technology, including what it is and how its works along with the skills needed to design an AR experience.
Students who complete the course will be able to get started with building their own AR project using Google’s ARCore development kit and tools like Poly.
ARCore is the successor the Google’s Project Tango and is designed to enhance AR applications for use on smartphones and tablets. ARCore got an update earlier this year, which was announced at Google I/O conference.
The new ARCore tools allow not only the detection of flat planar surfaces, but also introduces enhanced mapping of textured surfaces. Another new feature is Cloud anchors, which allows two different users to interact with the same virtual object. This feature meant that shared and cooperative AR experiences are now possible.
Further information on the Introduction to Augmented Reality and ARCore course, along with the enrolment application, can be found on the Coursera website. Fur further news on AR and education, keep checking back with VRFocus.