Tourism in Singapore has just gotten more exciting and immersive. Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has partnered with Google’s ARCore to offer Augmented Reality (AR) guided tours powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI),
Participants of the Google I/O 2023 developer conference have experienced firsthand a preview of two new AR tourism experiences: One around Merlion Park and the other at Victoria Theatre & Concert Hall, where visitors around the latter can witness a string quartet performing on top of the national monument.
The experience leverages Google’s ARCore Geospatial API and Google’s Visual Positioning Service (VPS) to help developers place virtual content in the real world with realistic lighting and physics. AI techniques are used to match images from the scanned environment to help user devices understand where their cameras are located and which way it is pointed, thus discerning the appropriate AR content to appear.
The cherry on top: The tours are hosted by Singapore’s adorable tourism mascot Merli.
With this new immersive experience, users can further engage with Singapore in delightful ways like discovering the best local hawker food or reliving history through scenes from the past.
Users can experience this preview today by downloading the Visit Singapore mobile application in the App Store or Google Play Store. Although only two such experiences are present for now, users can expect more experiences in different places of interest by the end of the year.
Crack open a cold one with Joey, because the moment you approach him, he will start talking about film and video games for days. He spends his waking moments during the weekends meditating on how the latest movie he’s watched or game he’s played has impacted his worldview.
Natalie
Gerald
Si Jia
