Augmented Reality Plugin v2.0 just released (by AR-Media)

[a.terenzi]

Inglobe Technologies released today the new version 2.0 of the AR-media Augmented Reality Plugin for Autodesk 3ds Max and Google SketchUp.

 

Thanks to AR-media™ Plugin v2.0 architecture, engineering, construction firms and professionals can now enjoy the potential of Augmented Reality technology by means of a plenty of new and useful features inside their preferred 3D modeling software.

As it is widely recognized, AR-media Plugin’s Augmented Reality allows AEC professionals to visualize and study their 3D creations directly in the physical space that surrounds them through a suitable visualization interface. The new version of the software enhances and completely replaces the former ones by adding new and useful features that allow users to design complex and astonishing Augmented Reality scenes, and to manage a variety of parameters that are crucial in the workflow of every AR project.

 

“The new version of the AR-media Plugin is conceived as an easy-to-use, practical and cost-effective tool for the creation of compelling Augmented Reality scenes in association with 3ds Max or SketchUp” declared Graziano Terenzi, CEO at Inglobe Technologies, “With this new version we wanted to provide AEC professionals as well as other users with a series of new high-level features that could enhance the degree of interactivity and immersivity of the software, while at the same time making it accessible to a growing number of people”.

 

Among the new supported features we can mention the following:

 

- a marker creation utility that allows the creation of custom augmented reality markers

 

- support of multiple markers

 

- the possibility to export independent augmented reality files that can be viewed with the free AR-media Player on any computer

 

- an antialiasing filter that enhances the visual appearance of the 3D models

 

But the most interesting novelties introduced in the new version of the software are the possibility to create “Occluder Objects” and the so called “Lighting Debug Mode”. What is an object occluder? In standard augmented reality applications, when a 3D model passes behind another object in the real world, it will always be displayed superimposed to the real object even if the latter should hide it in the observer’s view, thus creating a completely unrealistic effect. By introducing occluders objects with ARmedia Plugin 2.0 users will be able to create invisible virtual objects that mirror the structure of the real world scene, thus hiding the 3D content the right way in the observer’s view.

 

On the other hand, the “Lighting Debug Mode” is an option that extends user’s control over the tracking algorithm in such a way to adjust the quality of target’s recognition and tracking as a function of the lighting conditions in the real world scene.

With regards to available licenses, another important novelty is the release of a “Personal Learning Edition”. This is a free but partially limited version of the software that can be downloaded by anyone who wants to learn the basics of AR without the need of writing a line of code. All you need to make AR-media™ Plugin work is a personal computer and a webcam.

 

The Plugin supports also a wide variety of Head Mounted Displays, like for example Vuzix® CamAR, eMagin, i-glasses™.

 

For details visit Inglobe Technologies’ website.