AR and Live view

Two camera presentations

The app calls Live view VR in its mode controls. It is a phone camera-and-map experience, rather than headset virtual reality. Both camera presentations are intended for walking routes; map guidance remains available for riding and driving.

How the route reaches the camera

ARCore provides camera tracking. NavGate combines its local camera pose with geographic position, road heading, and estimated ground height to place the route. These inputs can disagree; the resulting path should be treated as an estimate rather than a surveyed ground marking.

flowchart TD
  Route[Shared walking route and progress] --> Align[Geographic route alignment]
  Location[Location and heading] --> Align
  Tracking[ARCore camera tracking] --> Ground[Ground estimation]
  Ground --> Align
  Align --> Render[Camera-frame route renderer]
  Render --> AR[AR ribbon and turn cues]
  Render --> Live[Live camera with curved map]
  Uncertain[Uncertain position or tracking] --> Recovery[Tracking message and map fallback]

Before opening AR

1. Plan a walking route

   Choose Walk and resolve a route before opening camera guidance.

2. Get onto the route

   The current AR gate checks that position is within approximately 25 m of the planned route and rejects reported accuracy worse than 35 m. These are implementation thresholds, not an accuracy promise.

3. Allow the camera to track

   Use a compatible phone with Google Play Services for AR. Hold it steadily and give the camera light and a textured ground surface.

4. Check alignment

   Compare guidance with the street around you. If it appears displaced, tracking pauses, or position is uncertain, return to the map.

Smoothness and fallback

Auto, Saver, Smooth, and Max settings choose camera and overlay rendering policies. The implementation can request 30 or 60 fps camera configurations and carry pose estimates between camera frames. Display rate, camera support, heat, battery saver, and tracking determine actual performance.

• A requested frame rate is not a guaranteed or measured frame rate on every phone.
• CameraX supports a plain-camera fallback when the tracked AR session is unavailable; it does not provide equivalent tracked placement.
• A camera permission denial, another app using the camera, or unsupported ARCore hardware can prevent the tracked view from starting.

Placement is still experimental

GPS error, compass interference, slopes, low light, blank surfaces, and interrupted tracking can move or destabilize guidance. The current active renderer clears its object masks; detection and depth-related support code does not establish dependable obstacle occlusion.