Spatial anchors denote a specific pose in the real world. They are used in augmented reality to place virtual objects in the real world.
Spatial anchors are a high level concept and can use various underlying techniques. Usually these are visual features like point or surface reconstruction. But it’s also possible to use geospatial data for defining anchors. The important thing is that anchors stay stable in their environment.
It’s possible to store spatial anchors in the cloud. Then it’s possible to recover virtual content at the same position over multiple sessions. It’s also possible to share these anchors with other users.
Most frameworks support anchors:
- AR Anchor Manager in the AR Foundation (not persistent)
- Cloud Anchors with ARCore
- World Anchors with ARKit
- Spatial Anchors on Meta Quest
- Azure Spatial Anchors
