What Is Samsung AR Zone? A Complete 2023 Guide

AR Technology Builds Towards Mainstream

Augmented reality (AR) overlays digital elements onto our real-world environments. In recent years AR has rapidly evolved from novelty to viable and valuable across industries like retail, medicine, design, and more. Given people‘s affinity for smartphone apps and video, AR adoption by everyday consumers continues rising as well.

Powerful devices with advanced cameras and sensors make mobile AR experiences possible. 5G networks enable complex computing and rendering in the cloud. And rapid progress in computer vision, AI, and spatial computing fuels ever-more immersive and utilitarian applications.

As AR technology builds towards mainstream integration, Samsung consolidates many capabilities into its AR Zone platform – establishing itself as an innovation leader in the space.

Market Projections Tell the Story

The AR market as a whole is on a stellar growth trajectory:

• Global AR market size is expected to grow from $16.8 billion in 2022 to $87.7 billion by 2028 at an annual rate of 38.1% (ReportLinker).
• There will be an estimated 3.08 billion AR users worldwide by 2023, up from 2.71 billion in 2021 says eMarketer.
• Google Trends shows AR/VR related search queries have risen over 400% in recent years and continue spiking upwards.

As consumers get accustomed to AR-enhanced shopping, mobile devices, vehicles, and work tools, Samsung seizes the moment to establish their Galaxy lineup as the premier augmented reality platform.

Use Cases Demonstrate AR‘s Utility

Augmented reality opens doorways to experiences impossible in the constraints of current reality. Samsung wants the Galaxy brand associated with that magic. Early-adopting consumers are discovering AR‘s utility across areas like:

• Retail & Marketing – virtual try-ons, smart mirrors, interactive brand experiences
• Training & Simulation – immersive teaching of safety, repairs, equipment operation procedures
• Work Collaboration – augmented video calls, multi-user spatial app review, AR-aided design
• Navigation – enhanced maps, directions overlaid onto real roads and landmarks
• Translation – sign/menu interpretation, speech-to-text floating text
• Healthcare – physician-assisted remote diagnosis, 3D anatomical reference, pre-op planning

Samsung AR Zone encapsulates that promise via fun features priming Galaxy users for bigger AR wave ahead.

Inside Samsung AR Zone: A Portal to Augmented Reality Experiences

As a free and ever-improving app preloaded on premium Galaxy devices, Samsung AR Zone serves as both showcase and sandbox for experimenting with augmented reality utilities.

Accessible via app icon or native camera integration, AR Zone lets creators, professionals and everyday users uncover new interactive dimensions within photos, selfies, environments and objects.

Let‘s explore key capabilities, customizations and use cases inside AR Zone‘s collection of apps.

AR Emoji Camera

AR Emoji Camera scans facial expressions to animate 3D characters that mimic the user in real-time augmented video. Select among diverse base models then customize skin tone, hairstyles, facial features and more for personalized flair.

Change poses and costumes on the fly while recording or capturingphotos. Sync mouth movements to voice audio for engaging watch-alongs. Tap into a massive sticker collection starring your singular emoji in memes, reactions and scenarios.

Fun for all ages, the AR Emoji Camera invites new messaging creativity, paving the way for AR avatars to become our social media personas.

AR Doodle

Live camera view transforms into a digital canvas with AR Doodle. Use on-screen brushes, splatters and 3D stickers to overlay vibrant artwork onto real rooms or cityscapes. Sculpt majestic landscapes. Doodle playful characters straight from imagination into reality.

Budding creators play with perspective and scale in AR Doodle, envisioning how spatial designs can complement architecture or sculpture giant monsters looming through city alleyways.

AR Emoji Studio

This dedicated space expands possibilities for building out and modifying personal emoji avatars. Adjust skin tones, facial contours, eyes, nose, ears, hair style and color. Add freckles, glasses, hairstreaks. Attire emojis in trending outfit categories.

AR Emoji Studio empowers deeper digital identity experimentation and self-expression.

3D Scanner

Capture detailed 3D scans of toys, gadgets, decor items and more using Samsung‘s 3D scanning utility. Slowly rotate the subject in view of cameras while the app maps surfaces and textures. Export for 3D printing or as digital assets to import into modeling software.

Budding industrial designers or decorative artists quickly acquire reference models to build online shops or augmented prototypes upon. Samsung‘s 3D scanning paves the way towards fusion of physical and digital.

Quick Measure

Visualize distances or areas within camera view using on-screen spatial guides, then output readings in desired units. Quickly gauge furniture dimensions while shopping. Calculate wall lengths when planning remodels. Estimate distances between landmarks during outdoor adventures.

Quick Measure demos practical everyday usage of accurate augmented overlays. Similar tools show high utility for interior design apps, construction site managers, event coordinators and more.

Deco Pic

Samsung‘s Deco Pic grants anyone creative director power over smartphone photos. Apply artistic filters and effects in real-time through the viewfinder plus annotate images with stickers, embellishments and text. Transform backgrounds using AI scene detection. Craft visual stories by importing pics into dynamic albums, magazines and slideshows complete with soundtracks.

Deco Pic makes photo editing and sharing delightful versus tedious. As augmented reality matures more into the mainstream, expect the boundaries between our captured moments and tools to enhance them to increasingly converge.

AR Zone: Gateway App to Augmented Lifestyles

While AR Zone enables next-level selfie filters today, it plants seeds for consumer comfort with augmented overlays upon reality. As shoppers grow accustomed to virtually trying on apparel or previewing furniture in living spaces, expanding use cases will feel natural not novel.

The same spatial perception powers enabling measurement tools and 3D scanning also shows promise for visually-guided directions, hazard alerts on job sites, respiratory health monitoring and more. Samsung seeds that future proliferation through fun creativity portals today.

Survey Shows Growing AR Welcome

Per a 2022 Nielsen study among technology early adopters:

• 76% express interest in using AR apps to envision how furniture/decor would look in their homes before buying
• 72% see appeal for AR try-on of clothing to assess fit
• 60% want AR restaurant menus and nutritional details displayed visually upon food dishes
• 57% desire AR meeting spaces to improve remote collaboration

As Samsung enables more utility-driven business cases like those above alongside purposeful fun like AR Zone offers, expect exponential augmentation invasion into everyday life.

Advancing AR Display Tech

Samsung also advances augmented reality experience capabilities through pioneering hardware like virtual reality Gear VR headsets and frontier form factors with foldable screens. Combining their leading display innovations with software like AR Zone unlocks greater immersion.

Mainstream AR adoption further rides on billions invested recently into startups propelling next-generation augmented tech in semiconductor chips, transparent smart glasses, 3D imaging sensors, cloud infrastructure, motion tracking and more. Samsung closely partners with many leaders across these domains as well.

The next 5 years will catapult augmented reality out of novelty niches into widespread personal and commercial integration.

Conclusion

As AR technology follows trajectory towards becoming indispensable for how people shop, learn, work and navigate the world, Samsung plants its stake firmly through AR Zone.

AR Zone rolls up measuring tools, 3D scanning, augmented drawing surfaces, and enhanced selfie features into one free and ever-expanding portal for Galaxy owners.

While fun today for creative experimentation and messaging flair via personalized emoji stickers, AR Zone primes Samsung‘s core demographic to welcome augmented overlays and spatial perception aids entering their real-world environments before long.

From visualizing new furniture in their bedroom using only a smartphone, to following arrows overlaid on actual roads during road trips, to tapping buttons seemingly floating in midair through augmented workstation goggles, science-fiction steadily manifests as science-reality thanks to AR innovation showcased in apps like AR Zone today.