Google is updating its Augmented Reality SDK so phones with dual cameras can capture better depth information. As indicated by Android Police, the most recent Google Play Services update for the AR app, which allows Google to distribute ARCore features, now shows “Dual Camera Stereo Depth on Supported Devices” in its changelog.
For now, it looks like support will be limited to Google’s own Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL, both released in 2019. The list of compatible ARCore devices on Google’s developer site says support. dual camera will be deployed in the coming weeks. .
In particular, this means that the Pixel 5 and 4a 5G, which are both Pixel 2020 phones with two cameras, will not see the benefits just yet. This may be because their secondary cameras are ultra-wide rather than the telephoto lenses of the Pixel 4 and 4 XL, which would have implications for how they might produce more detailed depth maps.
Either way, this is another consequence of Google’s indecisiveness on Pixel camera lenses. The company has long insisted that it only needed a single camera due to compute features like Super Res Zoom on the Pixel 3, and then confusingly added a telephoto lens on the Pixel 4. , then backtracked and swapped it out for an ultra-wide on the Pixel 5.
