Augmented Reality 3D

Matt Sugden · October 4, 2012

A couple of nights ago on TV here in the UK Sarah Beeney whipped out an ipad during a property show, such a QR code on the wall of the house then wham, the ipad was showing a realtime 3D display of the kitchen as moved the ipad around. it was very quickly brushed over, but the highlight of the show for me.

Anyone know what is going on with that tech? Can't seem to find anything on it on google.

hockley91 · October 4, 2012

Layar is a GPS based AR App that can do that. Also Metaio does this. Metaio is looking at using Markerless instead of a QR code marker, but they still have the Marker App as well..

http://www.metaio.com/

http://www.layar.com/

I've messed with these for Marketing purposes and it's pretty neat. I think in the near future this will add to 3D Visualization services.

Also, Autodesk Showcase and Autodesk Labs are working on AR also...

http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/showcase_ar

Adam

abhaysingh · October 4, 2012

I've tested demo version of Metaio sometime ago.Yes, most of AR application works with markers.They give some markers to print then just use your webcam at home and see the magic on computer screen.Advanced AR are done with Microsft kinect.It doesn't need printed markers.

You must have seen the video of national geographic AR showcase in shopping mall.Have you??

here it is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL62txWNFMY

Devin Johnston · October 5, 2012

For AR to be useful for arch viz it needs to be able to track without markers. I know there are apps out there that use GPS and compass info to position things on your screen, if one of the software companies could do that with their apps we'd be able to place buildings on a site.

etche · October 5, 2012

I've tested demo version of Metaio sometime ago.Yes, most of AR application works with markers.They give some markers to print then just use your webcam at home and see the magic on computer screen.Advanced AR are done with Microsft kinect.It doesn't need printed markers.
You must have seen the video of national geographic AR showcase in shopping mall.Have you??
here it is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL62txWNFMY

haha we have the same technology in a train station in Buenos Aires, but it's quality is a LOT lower. It's quite shameful.

hockley91 · October 5, 2012

The problem with GPS is that it will never be "exact" on the civilian end of things and that's on purpose and I think we all know why. Only the Federal Government and those with special permission can get "exact" GPS.

So, I think for our use it could be a combination of tracking and GPS or just relative tracking for the location at hand and utilize existing building locations or monuments to triangulate a consistent point for your location. Again, all relative to where you're standing. Metaio has a trackerless system, but I haven't gotten it to work...

Dave Buchhofer · November 1, 2012

For AR to be useful for arch viz it needs to be able to track without markers. I know there are apps out there that use GPS and compass info to position things on your screen, if one of the software companies could do that with their apps we'd be able to place buildings on a site.

You can put a building on a site now, the tricky parts come in to mobility, GPS is not quite accurate enough to lock the buildings in, so you need some sort of feature recognition RE: the below research projects, there is also the issue of Occlusion, and not having the AR as just an additive layer above reality for building viz type work, 'peeking around a corner' and seeing lines of sight are not quite there now without a lot of extra work. (It can be done, but it gets tricky.) lots of interesting 'State of the union' thoughts by Michael Abrash from valve on his blog with respect to the current state and issues involved in bringing true AR to the masses.

there are a few interesting projects ongoing, these are more aimed at internal tracking though which I feel is the end-game, specifically if you look into SLAM and PTAMM, the , and the Kinect Fusion, Kintinuous etc... It's not quite there yet in terms of speed and usefulness and is really just in the research project and tech demo phases right now.

there are several distinct ways to get into AR, none of which are the end all be all yet. but its an interesting field to keep an eye on. here's an outline of some of my notes, mostly centered around unity and AR, and mostly from sometime last year with minor updates since then, so there may be some stuff out of date, but it doesn't seem too far gone as of yet: https://workflowy.com/shared/ea03a1fb-0be9-d28c-f664-f1fd3cdff76f/

On the whole it is still a nice effect and useful to help sell widgets, and also to help alleviate some of the pain of teaching people how to navigate around models, there are some more advanced things that can be done with it, but for the most part they don't scale up to the level of model detail and physical scale that arch is pushing right now, and are staying in the realm of museum exhibits and small tech demos.

I've done some AR projects and continue to experiment and play with it on any downtime. Its fun, I think it'll be useful.

I guess this stuff should be boiled down into posts at some point

Cheers,

Dave.

Edited November 1, 2012 by Dave Buchhofer
added some links