Augmented reality software developer 8th Wall Inc. today announced the release of AR capabilities with 8th Wall Web that will use mobile browsers in lieu of downloaded apps. This will open the ability to see and experience AR to a much wider audience.

With today’s launch, the company has also become the first to bring a web-based AR commercial solution to market, beating Google LLC and Apple Inc. to general release.

Although Google and Apple have both been working on AR on the web, neither has come to market yet with a product that fully embraces the technology. Google has released an application programming interface designed for web-based AR content, but it’s only available in experimental Chrome browsers. Whereas Apple made its AR Quick Look feature available in iOS 12 beta for Safari using the Universal Scene Description, USDZ, file format, but it does so noninteractively.

As of today, the 8th Wall web-based AR product is generally available and does not require access to experimental or beta software to run.

Most AR experiences on mobile devices currently rely heavily on apps – the software downloaded onto the phone at the request of the user. Those apps also tend to depend heavily on native libraries such as ARCore for Android and ARKit for Apple iOS devices.

Augmented reality uses the camera on a mobile device to turn the screen into a “window” that displays an alternate reality where objects, characters and other visual effects can be overlaid onto the world. With special software, the phone can recognize people, buildings, floors, walls and other surfaces and then scale and place items or other effects in relation to those things.

As a result, AR can be used in numerous applications such as playing board games on an otherwise empty table, providing extra information about an object on-screen, delivering walking directions and other interactive media.

The company’s name “8th Wall” is a reference to the fourth wall in theater, the “invisible” wall that faces the audience that sometimes performers “break through” in order to talk directly to people sitting in the chairs watching. According to founder and Chief Executive Erik Murphy-Chutorian, his company intends to allow mobile users to break through even more walls to access the alternate reality of AR.

With 8th Wall Web, most web mobile browsers would use existing standards with JavaScript and WebGL to produce extremely similar AR experiences without the need for native libraries.

“AR transforms the way people can use the web, whether it’s taking a closer look at a product on an ecommerce site, interacting with immersive branded content or being guided through a recipe with AR in the comfort of your own kitchen,” said Murphy-Chutorian. “However, app installation is currently a major barrier to AR mobile adoption — 87 percent of smartphone users in the U.S. download no more than one app in a given month.”

Without the need to download an app, publishers can push users directly into the world of AR without any obstacles. All it takes is a link in a webpage to turn on the phone’s camera and leap into the augmented world.

It also means that publishers could send links via newsletters, social media and other communication platforms that would allow users to go directly into AR without needing to already have an app on their phone. Thus, dramatically reducing barriers between users and interesting AR content.

Features of 8th Wall Web include six-degrees-of-freedom for positional tracking, surface detection for the placement of virtual objects, world points that can be detected for AR experiences to take place in different surroundings, dynamic lighting detection so that virtual figures are lit appropriately, and the ability to interact with surfaces and other points in the scene.

The 8th Wall Web software incorporates development research that went into the company’s product 8th Wall XR, which uses the graphics engine Unity to provide app developers AR capabilities. As a result, developers who produced experiences for XR already have done much of the work to port them to web-based AR.

Mobile readers of this article can even see it in action for themselves by simply visiting 8th Wall’s website. It will launch an AR app demo with Jini, an augmented reality robot who “grants wishes.” The demonstration uses the mobile device’s camera to place Jini in the world and the touchscreen to allow interaction.

“8th Wall Web extends the reach and impact of developers’ AR features and creates a tremendous opportunity for them to reach customers on a scale that would not otherwise be possible,” said Murphy-Chutorian.

Image: 8th Wall