All of us have wondered, as kids, what’s beneath our feet on the other side of the world. Turns out that with Google’s experimental Floom web app and the wonders of augmented reality, you can find that out now.
Floom is an augmented reality app built to run within the Chrome browser. You do not need to download an app from the Play Store. Instead, this works on Chrome on an Android device by navigating to the URL: floom.withgoogle.com.
Most modern Android phones should be compatible with the app, which presents a title screen on opening up. You need to press ‘Let’s go’ to launch the experience. You might have to grant specific permissions to use the phone’s camera if you haven’t already for Chrome.
The app will then instruct you to point your phone’s camera towards the floor and move it around. A black spiral marker will appear after a few seconds. You can tap on the marker to see a photo and details of what’s located precisely on the other side of the world.
You can also tilt your phone to switch angles and see different variations of what’s on the other side of the globe. Moreover, the text at the top of the screen tells you whether it’s land or water. Once you have zeroed in on a location, you can check it out in more detail on the Google Earth application.
Floom is one of Google’s experimental projects using WebXR, which brings together AR and VR on the web to make them more convenient and widely accessible.
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