This Zenfone AR demo reveals intriguing and fun augmented reality use cases
![This Zenfone AR demo reveals intriguing and fun augmented reality use cases](https://m-cdn.phonearena.com/images/articles/296679-image/zenfonear-header.jpg)
Whether you're dressing up in dog ears on Snapchat, or tossing a Pokeball at your latest target in Pokemon GO, smartphone users everywhere are already playing around with augmented reality. But while any phone can use its camera to render graphics on top of a real-world scene, there's a special class of phones that use extra hardware to take their AR skills to the next level – those built for Google's Tango platform. We already got to know the first Tango phone last year, Lenovo's Phab 2 Pro, and now it's time see how the technology has matured as the next Tango device gets ready to make its commercial debut: the ASUS ZenFone AR.
Wayfair
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Using the app is quick and easy. Simply search the catalog for that special piece, and once selected, point the ZenFone’s cameras where you want it and simply drag and drop. Once placed, you can rotate and move the piece just as you would, were it in your home. We experienced no lag or stutter in our use of the app; everything was smoothly and quickly placed within the scene.
BMW i Visualiser
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The app lets users choose a spot, then renders one of those cars as if it were right there in front of you. The detail on the rendered models is fantastic, tapping into the same CAD files used by BMW engineers to design these cars in the first place. Even looking up close at the dash and user controls, small details are present everywhere, and smartly applied textures help sell the artificial reality of what you're seeing.
But the real appeal of the app comes not from just being able to check out an AR render of a fancy car, but being able to to tweak that model in real time to view the car with different wheels, paint jobs, and interior color options. Even if you were to make the trip to a dealer, you'd probably only be able to check out a handful of those combinations, while the app makes it easy to play around with those variable to find the look that's right for you.
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Classroom/Solar Simulator
Asus itself is also on the Tango development bandwagon, as it’s currently developing a set of augmented reality tools for education, a la Google’s Expedition’s. Meant to be executed as lesson plans, the software will work in a teacher-student configuration. The teacher will have the ability to present AR objects and events to the class, while each student has a device they can use to look around and explore the subject. Asus is still in the relatively early stages of development on this, so the number of lesson plans and depth of information for each subject is not yet clear.
One can assume, however, that the app will follow closely in the model of Tango apps like Solar Simulator, developed by Google. Affording users the ability to place much of our known solar system in their own, smaller space, Solar Simulator doesn’t just let you explore, but also learn and interact. Everything in the solar system is set to scale, giving you a somewhat surreal look at how vast even just our planetary solar system is, and invariably, how small we really are. Each planet can be visually examined closely, but the screen also brings up relevant information. For instance, looking at Saturn, you’ll see its various moons, the scale, and even its rotating speed – which you can manipulate – among other things. Once you’re done inspecting all the planets and you’ve learned all you wanted to know, you can send the planets into orbit, sit back, and enjoy the spectacle.
Holo for Tango
Augmented reality isn't just about letting you preview new products in your home, or even working as an educational tool; sometimes, you just want to have a little fun. That's just what the Holo app is built for, rendering 3D “holograms” of various characters into scenes captured with your smartphone's camera.
While there's an existing version of Holo that works with standard smartphones, a new beta version is designed to fully tap into Tango hardware, using those sensors to generate an accurate scan of the world around your phone, and using that data to even more convincingly render its virtual actors.
![This Zenfone AR demo reveals intriguing and fun augmented reality use cases](https://m-cdn.phonearena.com/images/articles/296678-image/zenfonear-daydream.jpg)
Google Daydream
While so far we've been talking a lot about the augmented-reality angle to using the ZenFone AR, that's just the half of what this phone can do, and it's also ready to work with Google's Daydream viewer to immerse users in a world of virtual reality.
With a Snapdragon 821 processor and quad-HD AMOLED display, the ZenFone AR's hardware (at least, the non-Tango bits) isn't too far removed from that of the Google Pixel XL, so it's little surprise that the phone is ready to work with the company's VR hardware.
While Tango's likely to be the big selling point of the ZenFone AR – after all, it's got that “AR” right in the name – this VR component does help flesh out the phone's feature set a little. And maybe more than a little, it has us dreaming about what Daydream headset would look like that incorporated some Tango hardware of its own, for AR experiences like no other. We'll just have to leave that as some wishful thinking for now, but for users interested in checking out some of the best VR experiences you can access on a smartphone today, the ZenFone AR's ready to bring you along for the ride.
For even more hands-on action with all this software, check out our ZenFone AR experience video below:
![Video Thumbnail](https://img.youtube.com/vi/NhRMKw6QdL4/maxresdefault.jpg)
Things that are NOT allowed: