The idea of creating a virtual environment in the real world seems really fascinating, and businesses are really using the technology of augmented reality to their advantage. In simple terms, it creates a composite view for the users by combining the real world (viewed by the users) and the virtual depiction (developed by the system)
Real Environment + Virtual Scenes (2D/3D) = Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality in 3 Steps
- Pick a real-world location/scene
- Identify the marker area/object
- Replace the real world marker areas with virtual objects
Features of Augmented Reality
- Merges the real and digital (virtual) world
- Allows real time client-business interactions
- Aligns all the dimensions
Types of Augmented Reality
Marker-based: The device would place the objects on the recognized markers. AR marker could be a QR code or black and white square image as these can easily be tracked by the system. Most of the business are using the marker-based augmented reality approach simply because it is easier to detect such objects which are pre-defined in the app.
Marker-less: A bit complicated concept as the objects which are recognized in through marker-less AR are not pre-defined in the app. The position and scale of the object or area where the virtual objects will be calculated using some mathematical algorithm that involves the consideration of X-axis, Y-axis.
Factors You Should Be Considering Before Developing AR App
- Identify, discuss and finalize the usage case and user flow for the app
- Select appropriate Software Development Kits (SDKs) to suit your business requirements
- Creation of marker/target objects. (In case the number of target objects are more, you would also have to consider the cloud recognition approach.)
- Creation of virtual objects (2D/3D) for the augmented content.
Though all the points are really important to consider for a developer as together they help to create a compelling AR app with amazing user experience, selection the SDK is key task and one has to consider certain parameters for that.
Reliable Target Recognition: It is very important to understand that at how much distance from the device camera for the image to be recognized. There could be the cases in which the image will only be recognized clearly if the camera is placed too close to the area, otherwise it will fluctuate.
Multiple Target Recognition: Select an SDK which recognizes/supports multiple marker images at the same time. And it must present the images appropriate to each of the markers, in a unique augmented view.
Dynamic Target Recognition: Your selected SDK must support dynamic markers as the users might change/add the markers from their end in some of the cases. As an AR vendor, you will have to offer some API and system to receive the imagines from the system in a dynamic environment.
Cloud Service Approach: Saving the images in the device would not something that the users will prefer as they like to have apps which consume low memory space of their device. So, you should propose cloud service to store the marked images.
Platform Support: Go for those AR service providers who are offering you the SDKs that work on native and cross platforms. In fact, some service providers are even offering SDKs for Apppcelarator, Xamarin and Unity among many other.
Final Thoughts
Since the AR technology is being recognized widely, there are many service providers in the market who would offer you all-inclusive augmented reality SDKs. The real task is to choose the right providers which suit your business requirement.
