Existing approaches to the resolution of this issue

There are two directions of work on improving the device positioning precision that is conducted by the industry participants.

• Increasing measurement preciseness through hardware

• Using the aggregate of corrective software

Everything today testifies to the fact that sufficiently precise hardware is not about to appear on the market in the near future. The situation will be partly improved by the new GPS receivers that manufacturers will begin installing on smartphones in 2018. These GPS receivers will allow to receive supplementary L5 signals from the satellites, which will allow to take a leap in improving precision, however, in the context of very high-density city centers this technology will still be unable to provide the required precision.

The solution thus lies with implementing programming algorithms that refine sensor data.

There are currently several main approaches to the resolution of this task.

• Using markers: the method allows to precisely position AR objects using the data on the location of the objects in relation to the marker, and the assumptions made by the program regarding the angle and the distance at which the marker is observed. Meanwhile, users can create their own markers, downloading them into the cloud and opening up the possibility of precise rendering of the AR space by devices that do not initially contain any information on these markers. This method is most appropriate and works best for smaller spaces, enclosed locations, such as rooms, exhibition halls, etc.

• Usage of mapping service data / street photos / lidar (active optical ranging devices) in various combinations. These methods use the information from the device camera, its comparison with the models stored on the servers, which are linked to geographical coordinates, and position calculation. This approach is capable of providing an acceptable result, and has the potential for further improvement of adjusted result quality. Meanwhile, it may currently refine device positioning only on certain limited territories, on which humankind has aggregated enough data.

Without an innovative solution, the aggregate of the issues in question does not allow to render AR objects all over the world with geographical precision and in a convincing manner or, in other words, in a way that we dream to see them. An amazing world, filled with futuristic objects, holograms, navigational, advertising and entertaining compositions, requires the resolution of issues of precise location determination and device orientation in real time, during different times of the day, on different devices with different sets of sensors, on the scale of the entire planet rather than districts, streets or cities.

Whoever resolves this issue and proposes a simple scalable solution, will open up the road to fast AR introduction into daily life.

The Spheroid Universe platform has developed such a solution