Google Search turns Pac-Man and Hello Kitty into interactive AR objects
The company has launched 3D object versions of 14 iconic Japanese characters.
Google is putting a bunch of iconic Japanese characters in Search as augmented reality objects you can interact with. The tech giant is giving you the chance to bring 14 familiar characters from anime, video games and TV shows into your environment, including Pac-Man and Hello Kitty. Apparently, Pac-Man remains the most-searched animated icon on Google, especially (for some reason) in Peru. Its worldwide search interest more than doubles the second-most searched character, Hello Kitty.
Aside from those two, you'll also be able to summon Ultraman, Evangelion and Gundam robots, as well as Little Twin Stars characters into your space. Like Google's other AR objects, they can scale up or down, depending on the real-world surface you're placing them on. All you need to do to access them is do a search query for the character you want on Google on mobile, find their AR card in the results and tap "View in 3D" to see them in your space.
On Android devices, you can do the search on the Google app or on any Android browser, so long as the phone supports ARCore. Meanwhile, Apple users can view Pac-Man, Hello Kitty and the other characters in their space through the Google app on devices with iOS 11 or later.
