LAS VEGAS and SAN JOSE, Calif: CES 2018 -- uSens, Inc., a pioneer in HCI and computer vision tracking solutions for augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), today announced the availability of uSensAR, a smartphone augmented reality (AR) engine.
uSensAR is a single camera, smartphone AR engine that is optimized for low-end cameras, sensors and IMUs. It utilizes computer vision, machine learning, SLAM and smartphone hardware to bring high-performance AR experiences to all Android smartphone users, not just those with expensive, top-tier hardware.
As part of this announcement, uSens has partnered with Spreadtrum Communications (Spreadtrum), a leading SOC company. uSensAR has enabled AR camera effects for the native camera app for the Spreadtrum SC9853 chipset platform, which is expected to sell hundreds of millions of smartphones in 2018, bringing AR experiences to those users for the first time.
"ARcore currently only serves about 30 million Android phones, which is just five percent of the entire Android smartphone ecosystem," said Dr. Yue Fei, uSens CTO and co-founder. "For the AR industry to thrive, it is essential that as many people as possible have access to AR-ready devices, which in turn will entice more AR content to be developed. With the release of uSensAR, we are allowing developers, smartphone manufacturers, and content creators to build those AR experiences not just for iPhone, Pixel and Samsung S8 users - which ARkit and ARcore have limited their offering to initially - but for the entire Android ecosystem."
Unlike other AR engines and frameworks, uSensAR is optimized for mid- and low-tier phones, with even better performance on high-end smartphone models. It is extremely resilient to poor camera, IMU and sensor data, while remaining flexible to integrate with all Android smartphones. Powered by SLAM technology, a series of computations and algorithms that constructs a virtual map of an environment, this markerless approach tracks a user's location by continuously scanning and 'learning' about their environment via computer vision. A user's position can then be tracked in unknown and changing environments, which enables 'World Scale' tracking, for a truly mobile experience.
Spreadtrum is a leading fabless semiconductor company in China with advanced technology in 3G and 4G wireless communication standards. With 14nm 8-core 64-bit Intel Airmont processor architecture, Spreadtrum SC9853 reaches 1.8 GHz in dominant frequency, and possesses efficient mobile computing performance and ultra-low power dissipation management.
"2018 is the year where we really expect to see augmented reality show its true capabilities, and we are seeing increased demand for AR-ready phones among our customer base accordingly," said Adam Zeng, Global Executive Vice President of Tsinghua Unigroup and CEO of Spreadtrum. "Spreadtrum has been committed to providing differentiated and diversified product portfolios for consumers all over the globe. We are excited to publish this mobile AR solution together with uSens, which is another excellent example of our premium solution integrating leading technologies and optimal benefits."
uSensAR features include:
•Mobile, inside-out motion tracking
•Visual Inertial Odometry (VIO) which utilizes IMU and camera sensors for motion tracking
•Low CPU and battery consumption
•Markerless tracking
•Advanced plane detection technology
•Environmental understanding via SLAM technology
•Loop closure and relocalization
•Millimeter-level position accuracy
•100% developed in-house, specifically for mobile
