Huawei wants P40 users to navigate museums in AR

Huawei’s AR Map app is available worldwide, but it only works at a few sites in China

Huawei

Xinmei Shen

Published: 8:00am, 10 Apr 2020

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This article originally appeared on ABACUS

The biggest selling point of Huawei’s newly unveiled P40 series smartphones is probably the cameras. But there’s also a related feature that hasn’t received as much attention: A map app that uses augmented reality for navigation.

For now, the feature is pretty limited. Huawei told us the app is available to download worldwide, but it currently only supports a few locations in China.

One of those locations is Mogao Caves, a Buddhist art attraction in the northwestern city of Dunhuang. A promotional video posted online shows that when the P40’s camera is pointed at the caves, the app can overlay information on the screen.

Users can also see virtual Buddhist characters displayed in their surroundings, like a Buddhist Pokémon Go. The app can be used to navigate at the site, too, with virtual flower petals laying out a path for people to follow.

The Huawei AR Map app is exclusively available on P40 series phones. But since it only covers places in China right now, it wasn’t introduced during the P40’s global unveiling. Huawei didn’t answer questions about how many locations are currently covered.

But Huawei’s chief camera engineer Luo Wei did say in a Weibo post that the app will cover 120 square kilometers (46 square miles) within Shanghai’s Inner Ring Road by the end of May. And by the end of 2020, it will cover all first-tier cities in China, more than 100 museums and 1,000 commercial districts, Luo said.

In China, where you live determines the tech you use

Luo also posted a video showing the app working at The Bund, a popular waterside area in Shanghai, and the nearby Nanjing Road pedestrian shopping street. The app is shown displaying information about landmarks and, for some reason, fish swimming through the air.

Enjoy the view of The Bund with some useful information and a flying fish. (Picture: 罗巍Cyberverse/Weibo)

Huawei first introduced its underlying AR technology, called Cyberverse, last August at the 2019 Huawei Developer Conference. Huawei says that improved camera technology has given smartphones the ability to better sense the world around them. In addition to museums and commercial districts, Luo said Cyberverse could be used in other public places like airports and railway stations.

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