Device/Browser combo that currently support anchors

[carstenschwede]

Is there currently any combination of mixed reality devices (e.g. HoloLens 2/Magic Leap) and browser (e.g. Firefox Reality) that allows testing out anchors or is it too early?

[jdmiranda]

Can you be more precise. Are you asking if there are devices that have an implementation of anchors, both do, that is also exposed in the browser?

Apple, Android, Hololens and Magic Leap all have a concept of anchors.

However, the implementation and behavior very. For example, what their primitive backing feature consistent of.

You have the problem of localization in a passthrough wearable where the user is placed in some sub map of a larger map.

AR I assume would have a similar issue.

VR has the benefit of being more consistent in this regard because you have a stable origin.

[jdmiranda]

A few thoughts are this: express the anchor as the average of some lower level anchor. For example GPS, computer vision recognition, offset from a map id, another anchor offset.

Because of things like bundle adjust, drift, accumulated error in relocalization, creating various backing elements should help stabilize over time as long as those elements are stationary. Although you have headpose in VR you have a more consistent origin than when in AR.

[carstenschwede]

I mean is there currently any device/browser which allows you to actually call XRFrame.createAnchor(...) or this just the intended spec? I know that for e.g. Magic Leap you can use session.getNearestPCF() - but that's specific to Magic Leap only. I don't know of any for e.g. HoloLens 1 - in which you have the concept of world anchors but AFAIK they are not exposed in any API on the browser side.

[bialpio]

Chrome for Android is shipping Anchors as of M85, they should be available for "immersive-ar" sessions. @thetuvix, @yonet, @AdaRoseCannon - can you speak to whether anchors are implemented in other browser/device combos and/or ping folks who could speak to that?

[Yonet]

Great news @bialpio. Any plans to implement anchors @jdashg?

[carstenschwede]

Ping @thetuvix, @Yonet, @AdaRoseCannon, @jdashg: is there any wearable device currently available which supports WebXR Anchors?

[AdaRoseCannon]

@fordacious may know

[tlevin1]

Any other device support beside android? Looking to create an anchor with Hololens 2

[fordacious]

Currently the Canary and Dev versions of Edge (v93) support anchors without any flag changes. Previous versions support anchors but require you to set the WebXRIncubations flag.

[fordacious]

@tlevin1

[carstenschwede]

@fordacious You are referring to HoloLens 2, correct?

[Utopiah]

Hi, any clarification on that front? As I see involvement from Microsoft, any timeline where Azure Cloud anchors could support the Web as a target platform?

[AdaRoseCannon]

This topic gets brought up each face to face meeting, we know people want shared anchors, and generally the answer is "no, not any time soon", there isn't really an interoperable cloud-anchor solution.

[Yonet]

@Utopiah since a chunk of Mixed Reality team is laid-off, I don't think Azure will support web as a platform in the near future.

[Utopiah]

Thanks @Yonet for the direct answer.