Enhanced Virtual Overlay for Maintaining Safe Distances
In the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic, societal norms have shifted, requiring the adoption of new behaviors. One such necessity is maintaining social distancing to prevent disease transmission. Yet, calculating these distances can be challenging, leading to the conception of AR Around-Me - an augmented reality (AR) application aimed at simplifying this task.
Developed by CodingVR, the app promises to facilitate social distancing and combat the pandemic. By employing AR, AR Around-Me measures the distance between individuals while offering visual cues in the form of red, yellow, and green circles symbolizing various distancing thresholds: 1m, 1.50m, and 2m.
Upon its release on May 30th, following the conclusion of lockdown measures, the initiative aimed to respond to the current health crisis. Valérie Barbot, co-founder of CodingVR, explained in a podcast that they created the app in an effort to contribute to the collective fight against COVID-19. Developed alongside her husband and collaborator within a week, AR Around-Me complements an existing interior design simulation app, AR Deco Picture, in CodingVR's catalog.
Free of advertisements, the app has been downloaded worldwide, with the founders reporting increased downloads during this period of crisis. Barbot believes that AR has the potential to revolutionize daily life and habits.
Following the reopening of non-essential shops and the implementation of a 8m2 minimum space requirement for customers, the application has been updated to visualize this area in augmented reality.
While the specific features and effectiveness of AR Around-Me remain unclear, the application demonstrates the potential of AR technologies to support social distancing efforts and contribute to collective health and safety.
The AR Around-Me application, developed by CodingVR, leverages augmented reality (AR) technology to aid in social distancing, providing visual cues for maintaining proper distances during health-and-wellness conscious activities. As non-essential stores reopen, the app has been updated to visualize the required 8m2 minimum space for customers, further incorporating AR into daily fitness-and-exercise and mental-health focused routines.
