Are consumers ready to give augmented reality a try?

But seeing as how Apple has managed to bring AR to the iPhone in a much simpler way with its ARKit framework, Google has too made a decision to launch its own, simplified AR software framework that will be available on a much, much broader scope of devices that Tango. It's available to developers in preview form today, and as of now works on Google's Pixels and Samsung's Galaxy S8.

Apple and Google have had to make compromises to bring the technology to market. It is working on bringing AR to the web browser, and eventually wants to allow developers to build AR experiences on the web that run on both Android and iOS, powered by both ARCore and ARKit. Google's promises of wide device compatibility for ARCore suggests that it may come to a wider range of handsets, although given its reliance on camera technology, it's more likely to work well with premium or at least mid-range Android devices.

In developing the platform, Google focused on three key components of the system: environmental understanding, motion tracking and light estimation. The VPS will make it so that developers can create lifelike, full-scale AR experiences within the world.

We're in the early days, and the ARCore software development kit has only been released to developers. With ARCore, Google changed course to work on phones without depth sensors.

ARKit is an essential part of the latest iteration of iOS, and Apple has taken the opportunity to show off a whole heap of apps that are built on it. ARCore will enable the construction of AR apps on Android, the most widely used mobile platform on the globe.

Much like ARKit, ARCore is made to function on devices without specialized sensors for sensing depth, and as such, is not ideal by any means, but it is widely available and easily accessible. Google and Microsoft have already experimented with AR glasses. ARCore is expected to eventually run on "millions of devices".

The furniture retailer worked with Apple to develop an app which allows phone users to measure the space in their homes and digitally "place" an item from its catalogue in that space on their phone.

Eyeglasses, auto windshields and other surfaces which overlay digital information on the real world have been touted by industry leaders as becoming major players in the AR space in coming years.

"ARCore is a foundational layer which provides similar capabilities, but it works across the Android ecosystem", a Google spokesperson told Mashable.

Augmented Reality (AR) - in response to Apple's ARKit Google unveiled the ARCore. The system then combines that with IMU sensor data and ARCore is able to determine the position and orientation of the phone as it moves so that virtual objects are placed accurately.