I’m old enough to remember 2020, when we sincerely (?) thought that everyone would be excited to put 3D-scanned virtual Olympians onto their coffee tables… or something. (Hey, it was fun while it lasted! And it temporarily kept a bunch of graphics nerds from having to slink back to the sweatshop grind of video game development.)

Anyway, here’s a look back to what Google was doing around augmented reality and the 2020 (’21) Olympics:

I swear I spent half of last summer staring at tiny 3D Naomi Osaka volleying shots on my desktop. I remain jealous of my former teammates who got to work with these athletes (and before them, folks like Donald Glover as Childish Gambino), even though doing so meant dealing with a million Covid safety protocols. Here’s a quick look at how they captured folks flexing & flying through space:

 

 

 

 

 

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[Via Chikezie Ejiasi]