Google LLC Tuesday announced a new augmented reality mode in its Motion Stills app for Android.

The company launched its Motion Stills app for Android users in July, following the launch of the app on iOS the previous year. Google launched the Motion Stills iOS app to provide video stabilization for Apple Inc.’s Live Photos and provide an easier way for users to share the finished product via messaging or on social media. It updated it with features such as Motion Text at the end of 2016.

The new AR mode in Motion Stills will allow users to place 3-D objects on a static or moving horizontal surface. Google previously had AR stickers available on the Pixel 2, but this update brings the AR feature to many other Android devices.

Users can place these objects, which include a 3-D chicken and T. rex, by simply touching the viewfinder and placing the object on a table, floor or their hand. The 3-D object in its real-world environment can be recorded and users can then share the clips as GIFs and videos.

The AR mode is powered by instant motion tracking and is built on the technology that powers Motion Text in Motion Stills iOS and the privacy blur on YouTube. This allows the feature to track static and moving objects accurately.

Motion Stills AR works by “sticking” a 3-D virtual object to the location touched in the viewfinder and makes the object look as if it’s part of the real-world scene. The technology tracks two types of camera motion: rotation and side-to-side translation. The app uses the side-to-side motion to figure out how much to scale the 3-D object, while the gyroscope data is used to orient it correctly on the phone’s viewfinder.

“Because we treat rotation and translation separately, our instant motion tracking approach is calibration-free and works on any Android device with a gyroscope,” Google Research software engineers Jianing Wei and Tyler Mullen wrote in the blog post.

Motions Skills AR doesn’t require the higher-end hardware that ARCore requires, but it also can’t match a 3-D object to the real-world scale. Google launched ARCore in August, a software development kit for Android devices that implements mixed reality and AR.  

The updated version of Motions Stills is available on the App Store. Android users will need version 5.1 or higher.

Image: Google