1. Designing Mobile AR Applications
Mark Billinghurst
mark.billinghurst@hitlabnz.org
The HIT Lab NZ, University of Canterbury
December 2nd 2013

2. Introduction

3. 1983 – Star Wars

4. 1999 - HIT Lab US

5. 1998: SGI O2
CPU: 300 Mhz
HDD; 9GB
RAM: 512 mb
Camera: VGA 30fps
Graphics: 500K poly/sec
2008: Nokia N95
CPU: 332 Mhz
HDD; 8GB
RAM: 128 mb
Camera: VGA 30 fps
Graphics: 2m poly/sec

6. Mobile Phone AR
 Mobile Phones
 camera
 processor
 display
 AR on Mobile Phones
 Simple graphics
 Optimized computer vision
 Collaborative Interaction

7. 2005: Collaborative AR
 AR Tennis
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Shared AR content
Two user game
Audio + haptic feedback
Bluetooth networking

9. Mobile AR History

10. Evolution of Mobile AR
Camera phone
Wearable
Computers
Camera phone
- Thin client AR
Wearable AR
Handheld
AR Displays
Camera phone
- Self contained AR
PDAs
-Thin client AR
PDAs
-Self contained AR
1995
1997
2001
2003
2004

11. Handheld Displays
Tethered Applications
 Fitzmaurice Chameleon (1994)
 Rekimoto’s Transvision (1995)
 Tethered LCD
 PC Processing and Tracking

12. Handheld AR Display - Tethered
1995, 1996 Handheld AR
 ARPad, Cameleon
 Rekimoto’s NaviCam, Transvision
 Tethered LCD
 PC Processing and Tracking

13. Mobile AR: Touring Machine (1997)
 University of Columbia
 Feiner, MacIntyre, Höllerer, Webster
 Combines
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See through head mounted display
GPS tracking
Orientation sensor
Backpack PC (custom)
Tablet input

14. MARS View
 Virtual tags overlaid on the real world
 “Information in place”

15. Backpack/Wearable AR
1997 Backpack AR
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Feiner’s Touring Machine
AR Quake (Thomas)
Tinmith (Piekarski)
MCAR (Reitmayr)
 Bulky, HMD based

16. Mobile AR - Hardware
RTK correction Antenna
GPS
Antenna
HMD
Controller
Example self-built working
solution with PCI-based 3D graphics
PCI 3D Graphics Board
Tracker
Controller
PC104 Sound Card
DC to DC
Converter
Wearable
Computer
CPU
PC104 PCMCIA
Battery
GPS
RTK
correction
Radio
Hard Drive
Serial
Ports
Columbia Touring Machine

17. HIT Lab NZ Wearable AR (2004)
 Highly accurate outdoor AR
tracking system
 GPS, Inertial, RTK system
 HMD
 First prototype
 Laptop based
 Video see-through HMD
 2-3 cm tracking accuracy

18. Image Registration
AR Stakeout Application

19. Wearable AR Video

20. Sharp J-SH04
 1997 Philip Kahn invents camera phone
 1999 First commercial camera phone

21. Millions of Camera Phones
1200
1000
800
DSC
600
Phone
400
200
0
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

22. Handheld AR – Thin Client
2001 BatPortal (AT&T Cambridge)
 PDA used as I/O device
 Wireless connection to workstation
 Room-scale ultrasonic tracking (Bat)
2001 AR-PDA (C Lab)
 PDA thin graphics client
 Remote image processing
 www.ar-pda.com

23. Mobile Phone AR – Thin Client
2003 ARphone (Univ. of Sydney)
 Transfer images via Bluetooth (slow – 30 sec/image)
 Remote processing – AR Server
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24. Early Phone Computer Vision Apps
2003 – Mozzies Game - Best mobile game
Optical motion flow detecting phone orientation
Siemens SX1 – Symbian, 120Mhz, VGA Camera
2005 – Marble Revolution (Bit-Side GmbH)
Winner of Nokia's Series 60 Challenge 2005
2005 – SymBall (VTT)

25. Handheld AR – Self Contained
2003 PDA-based AR
 ARToolKit port to PDA
 Studierstube ported to PDA
 AR Kanji Educational App.
 Mr Virtuoso AR character
 Wagner’s Invisible Train
- Collaborative AR

26. Mobile Phone AR – Self Contained
2004 Mobile Phone AR
 Moehring, Bimber
 Henrysson (ARToolKit)
 Camera, processor, display together

27. AR Advertising
 Txt message to download AR application (200K)
 See virtual content popping out of real paper advert
 Tested May 2007 by Saatchi and Saatchi

28. 2008 - Location Aware Phones
Motorola Droid
Nokia Navigator

29. Real World Information Overlay
 Tag real world locations
 GPS + Compass input
 Overlay graphics data on live video
 Applications
 Travel guide, Advertising, etc
 Eg: Mobilizy Wikitude (www.mobilizy.com)
 Android/iOS based, Public API released
 Other companies
 Layar, AcrossAir, Tochnidot, RobotVision, etc

30. Layar – www.layar.com

31. 2013 State of the Art
Handheld Hardware available
PDA, mobile phones, external cameras
Sensors: GPS, accelerometer, compass
Software Tools are Available
Tracking: ARToolKitPlus, stbTracker, Vuforia
Graphics: OpenGL ES
Authoring: Layar, Wikitude, Metaio Creator
What is needed:
High level authoring tools
Content development tools
Novel interaction techniques
User evaluation and usability

32. Mobile AR Companies
 Mobile AR
 GPS + compass
 Many Companies
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Layar
Wikitude
Acrossair
PressLite
Yelp
Robot vision
Etc..

33. $2 million USD in 2010
$732 million USD in 2014

34. Qualcomm
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Acquired Imagination
October 2010 - Releases free Android AR SDK
Computer vision tracking - marker, markerless
Integrated with Unity 3D renderer
http://developer.qualcomm.com/ar

35. Rock-em Sock-em
 Shared AR Demo
 Markerless tracking

36. Mobile AR Browsing

37. Nokia City Lens
 More recent AR Browser

38. AR Browsers
 AR equivalent of web browser
 Request and serve up content
 Commercial outdoor AR applications
 Nokia, Junaio, Layar, Wikitude, etc
 All have their own language specifications
 Wikitude – ARML
 Junaio – XML, AREL

39. Architecture

40. Junaio - www.junaio.com

41. Key Features
 Content provided in information channels
 Over 2,000 channels available
 Two types of AR channels
 GLUE channels – visual tracking
 Location based channels – GPS, compass tracking
 Simple to use interface with multiple views
 List, map, AR (live) view
 Point of Interest (POI) based
 POIs are geo-located content

44. Try it Yourself
 Download Junaio (app store, android market)
 Search for Junaio
 Run Junaio
 To try Glue channels
 Download the Junaio Demo Book from
www.junaio.com
 Hit scan button, point at QR codes
 To try Location channels
 Hit search icon in Junaio
 Click popular tab, pick channel (eg “Flickr”)

45. Junaio Interface (Location Based)
Search
Icon
AR Tag
Current
Channel
View
Mode
Scan
Mode
Radar
Display

46. Selecting an AR Tag
 Selecting a POI shows more information

47. Multiple Views
Map View
List View
AR (Live) View
 Select View Mode to see different views

48. QR Code Launch
 Hit scan button on interface, point at QR
code

49. Glue Tracking - Markerless
 Search for “instant tracker”

50. How Junaio Works

62. Back-end Servers

63. Data Flow

64. Creating Your First Glue Channel
(Using Junaio Creator)

65. Key Steps
1. Download and install Junaio application
 From iOS and Android app stores
2. Create a developer account on Junaio.com
3. Download and install Metaio Creator
 From http://www.metaio.com/creator/
4. Build sample AR scene
5. Test scene on desktop
6. Publish mobile AR channel

66. Junaio.com
Click here to download
mobile application
Click here to create
developer account

67.  http://www.junaio.com/develop/

70.  http://www.metaio.com/creator/

72. Creator Features
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Drag and drop AR scene creation
Multiple types of content (2D, 3D, text, video, etc)
Multiple tracking techniques (image, model, point cloud)
Upload to Metaio server space
Offline preview mode

73. Creator Interface

74. Creator Interface
Resources
UI Tools
AR view
Chanel Info
Tracking Images

75. Demo
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Upload tracking image
Add 3D content
Manipulate content
Test scene
Publish scene

76. Desktop Test
 Click “Quick Preview” button

77. Creating the AR Channel
 Click “New Chanel”, Fill out Channel Details

78. Testing the Channel
 Launch Junaio, scan QR code

79. QR Code Launch
 Hit scan button on interface, point at QR
code

80. Test Result

81. Other Demos
 Adding other trackable images
 Adding other content (video, 3D models, etc)
 Adding buttons and interactions
 Using the User Interface designer

82. More Trackables
 Add more images
 Set properties

83. Other Types of Trackables
 Image, object, environment tracking
 Use Metaio Toolbox for data capture

84. Good Tracking Patterns
 pattern that is highly structured
 lot of visual hints with different colors
 high contrasts and sharp edges
 pattern in a "common" format,
 Square or rectangle format in 3:2 or 4:3 or similar
 not too dark and no reflection points
 shortest side of the image 150 – 200 pixels

85. Good Examples

86. Bad Tracking Patterns
 Reference Image not flat and blurry
 Shadows create false contrasts
 Angled reference images create false
reference orientation
 Pattern too bright or dark
 Angled with surrounding information
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