What is Augmented Reality ?

What is Augmented Reality ?

Augmented Reality is a type of virtual reality that aims to duplicate the world’s environment in a computer. An augmented reality system generates a composite view

for the user that is a combination of the real scene viewed by the user and a virtual scene generated by the computer that augments the scene with additional information.

The goal of Augmented Reality is to create a system in which the user cannot tell the difference between the real world and the virtual augmentation of it. Today Augmented Reality is used in entertainment, military training, engineering design, robotics, manufacturing and other industries.

A Example to make things clear

You’re watching a live match and gets a call from umpire that the batsman was out LBW, but if he takes a review call the visual is made with the track of the ball and the impact of line. It makes everything clear whether the ball pitching was on the line and whether it was going to hit the stumps or not.

So like this there are many real world examples.Like if you are making a car parking application then you can opt for AR as it will help you to track your vehicle by the camera with the help of POI (Points of interest ) and places marker.

Features of Augmented Reality

• The user can see POIs and Google Places as markers on Google Map.
• He/She can also choose between languages
• In AR Mode, the rear camera is on. The device shows only those POIs along with the distance (in miles), where the device is pointing to.
• The user can see all POIs in the list view. Search option at the top of the screen allows the user to search by the name of POI.
• The user can also see the details of the selected POIs in the more info screen.
• The user can get walking direction to the selected POIs from his/her current position.

Things to consider before you start with Augmented reality apps

• Finding a right approach for developing an app.
• Functionality scripts added in iOS platform can be reused in Android platform.
• One building can have multiple POI, AR mode should show all POI, along with distance (in miles) from the current user location.
• The app should support English and Welsh language.
• You can find the below functionality keys on google developer console.
• Google Maps SDK: For showing map & POI marker on the device.
• Google Direction API: Google Maps Directions API is a service that calculates directions between locations.
• Google Places API: This API gets the detailed information about 100 million places across a wide range of categories.

Technology with Frameworks

Unity

PROS: 

• Enables building complex AR Apps with little coding.
• No need to code separately for Android and IOS.
• Apps can be made interactive with graphical UI elements.
• Provide faster local detection of targets with the capacity of tracking 10 targets simultaneously.
• Efficient tracking in low light conditions and even though the target is covered partially.
• Extended tracking capabilities, which enable the app to keep tracking targets and helps maintain a consistent reference for augmentations of the object even when the targets are no longer visible in real-time camera view.
• Extensive documentation

 CONS: 

• New Visitor/Students need to need to be aware of Targets as Tracking is based on Markers and user needs to point the camera in direction of marker to get information.
• Integrating GPS and Vuforia Marker tracking is not yet achieved. It would require additional research.
• There is a limitation of 100 active targets that applies to Device Databases (i.e. local databases). The Cloud Recognition Service will support up to 1000 images for free accounts and up to 1 million for commercial accounts.
• Not more than 10 images can be tracked simultaneously as it impacts tracking.
• A graphic designer resource would be required if the animation is in scope.

Angular Java Script (Native)

 PROS: 

• Pure native. Developed by Google.
• GPS and device direction can be achieved using inbuilt features by accessing device hardware (Accelerometer sensor, Gyroscope sensor, Magnetometer sensor etc.)
• Easy to develop.
• Support multiple platforms.

  CONS: 

• Not many tutorials found on the Internet for achieving Augmented Reality.
• New technology, therefore not much matured.

Native Development (XCode with Swift language) 

PROS: 

• Since the applications are built utilising the native platform interface components and adhere to platform UI guidelines, they appear as natural extensions of the platform, which provides a visually seamless user experience.
• Apps have direct access to all platform-specific capabilities including embedded hardware, peripherals, and specialised UI libraries or components.
• Native apps can access a smartphone’s GPS, USB, cameras, and networking hardware.
• Native applications have been written with standardised languages and toolkits to achieve the highest possible runtime performance because they are being compiled to run directly on the hardware without intervening abstraction layers.
• IOS: Applications has been written within Apple’s proprietary integrated development environment named Xcode, which includes the Swift and Objective-C compilers, 4,000 IOS SDKs, an interface builder, IOS simulator, testing platform and hardware instrumentation. Xcode is open source. Even many open source components are available for AR mode.
• Android: Android Studio is the officially integrated development environment (IDE) for the Android platform which includes Java and C++ compliers, SDKs, Simulator, testing platform and hardware instrumentation. Even it’s open source. Many open source components are available for AR mode.

CONS: 

• The code cannot be shared between other platforms.
• For creating an Android app, the developer has to use some other IDE.

Conclusion:

So as described Augmented Reality can help to invent and discover new horizons of life and technology visually. You can find a really good example for the Use of Augmented Reality

Hope this will help you..! Stay tuned for more.

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