Active Theory Releases Paper Planes On Google Play Store

In Google I/O 2016, Active theory featured its Paper Planes and later they created an Android experiment which is also featured on Google Play Store. Paper Planes is created with a simple thought - “What if you could throw a paper plane from one screen to another?”.

Paper Planes is built on the idea of bringing people together from all over the world by using the power of the web. JavaScript and WebGL are two of the modern web technologies used specifically to power the experience of throwing planes around the world.

Paper Planes Google I/O is fun to use, users can create and fold their own planes adding a stamp  that is prefilled with their location. Planes can be launched in the virtual world just by making a throwing gesture. The desktop users will see the planes flying in the screen.

Users can also keep an eye on where their planes have been caught around the world. The stamp works as a passport and a 3D Earth tells you about the flight path and distance travelled. Users can also catch these planes by using their phones like a net. By pinching, it will open and reveal where it has visited. Users can also add their own stamp and throw it back.

It will be interesting to know how Paper Planes work:

WebGL

WebGL is used in the rendering of 3D elements and it creates the stylish low-poly Earth and flocking planes.

WebSockets

Websockets are responsible for delivering the message to the back-end servers. Thereafter, messages are relayed to all desktop computers to visualize the plane taking off.

WebWorkers

WebWorkers calculates plane flocking simulation across multiple threads. It calculates the position of each plane and reverts the information back to the main thread to be rendered by WebGL.

For more information, check out the official android blog page.