Not that it suddenly makes your life more interesting or meaningful, but simply because it can be fun… To banish boredom, Google has added a function in its search engine that allows you to see a 3D rendering of a 'live' animal in your living room, bathroom or backyard magic. When the feature premiered last year, you could only view a handful of animals. Today there is an entire zoo available.
Step 1: Render in 3D
In times of staying at home, viewing 3D animals can be a pleasant way to banish boredom. All you need is a smartphone that supports augmented reality. That could be an Android phone that is ARCore and ARKit ready, or an iPhone. Then open your phone's default browser and navigate to the relevant animal in Google. Last year this only worked with a tiger, lion, giant panda, a Rottweiler and a wolf. Now the list has become much longer (see the list). Around Easter, Google even added an Easter bunny. Scroll down until you come to a box that says something like Take a closer look at [the animal]. Tap the button there View in 3D.
Step 2: Moving Animals
Then point your phone's camera at the floor, or the sky if it's a bird. After a while, your phone switches to augmented reality view. This may take a few seconds and a window will prompt you to gently rock the phone back and forth. The animals are not simply placed statically. The horse is eager and sniffing, the Easter bunny hops around, and the eagle flaps and screeches through the living room. As with other AR objects, you can zoom in and view the object seamlessly from different points of view.
Step 3: Not Just Animals
It's not just animals that you can view that way, by the way. For example, Google and NASA have teamed up to bring an extensive collection of celestial objects to your screen in 3D. You can rotate them, zoom in on them, but they won't appear AR in your interior. For example, enter Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Venus or another celestial body as a search term followed by 3D and look in the results for the button View in 3D. Then select the view Object.
