Hey everybody,

Android Android Studio AndroidStudio ARToolKit ARToolKit5 ARToolKit6 Augmented Reality awesome camera calibration demo Development Emscripten innovation JSARToolKit Linux live-demo OpenSpace3D Performance RaspberryPI solar system Tutorial Unity Unity3D WASM web WebAssembly. ARToolKit uses computer vision techniques to calculate the real camera viewpoint relative to a real world marker. There are several steps as shown in figures 3-5. First the live video image (figure 3) is turned into a binary (black or white) image based on a lighting threshold value (figure 4). Android Android Studio AndroidStudio ARToolKit ARToolKit5 ARToolKit6 Augmented Reality awesome camera calibration demo Development Emscripten innovation JSARToolKit Linux live-demo OpenSpace3D Performance RaspberryPI solar system Tutorial Unity Unity3D WASM web WebAssembly. ARToolKit for Desktop v5.x is the professional version of ARToolKit, the world’s most widely used tracking library for augmented reality. ARToolKit Pro provides reliable, low cost, adaptable, scalable object tracking for augmented and virtual reality applications. ARToolKit is an open-source computer tracking library for creation of strong augmented reality applications that overlay virtual imagery on the real world. Currently, it is maintained as an open-source project hosted on GitHub. ARToolKit is a very widely used AR tracking library with over 160,000 downloads on its last public release in 2004.

during this rainy summer I figured, there could be the perfect moment for you to get started with augmented reality, too! You have seen the demos on youtube? You were intrigued by movie effects? But how could you try it out easily and – for now – without any skills in augmented reality or programming? Here is the answer below! Try it out! All you need is a neat webcam or even a crappy one and then try one or all of the following demos to get a first impression yourself! No movie, but all real-time in your hands!

1. Transform yourself!

Go to www.weareautobots.com and install the plug-in, when asked. After some loading you will see your webcam image as a live feed in your browser and when you keep your face inside the camera, you’ll be automatically transformed into an Autobot from Transformers!

(This demos uses face recognition and tracking. Nothing else is needed besides your human looks. But that one you’ll need, since the face recognition will look for two eyeballs, one nose, etc…)

2. Fight the dragon on your desktop!

Go to www.metaio.com/design/demo and download the Unifeye Design Demo Installer (Windows only). After installing, go to the subfolder (probably:) C:Program FilesmetaioUnifeye Design DemoexamplesscenesKnights&Dragons and print the file Drache_Marker_1.jpg.

Now start the Unifeye Design Demo link on your desktop. At the bottom of the screen you will see video play controls (rwd, play, stop, fwd), right next to those you’ll have three vertically aligned buttons: click the lower one and then select your webcam on the right. You’ll see your video feed. Go to File > Open and select examples > scenes > knights&dragons > DemoScene_Knights&Dragons.scef. Now hold the printed paper into the view!

(This demo uses feature based tracking, i.e. you have to use an image as a reference. In this case this is the castle image you printed. The whole tool can do much more and you can even import your own VRML files. If you have no clue, what that means, don’t worry. Try one of the other demos, that are shipped along.)

3. Go to where it all started!

Download the ARToolkit package from www.hitl.washington.edu/artoolkit/download and unpack it. If you run Windows, copy this file into the unpacked folder ARToolKitbin or download the OpenGL GLUT files from the web and copy them to your folder. Now print the file ARToolKitpatternspattHiro.pdf and start the program simpleVRML. You will see a bee buzzing above a flower – on your hand!

(This demo uses marker based tracking, i.e. you have to hold a black/white pattern into the camera’s view. This printed square will be recognised as the anchor, where the program will put the graphics. As you move around the pattern, the 3D objects will move along. This last demo ships with all the C source code. So if you are interested in learning more about augmented reality and starting to program your own application, continue reading on the ARToolkit website for tutorials or go to the Studierstube to get the ARToolkit Plus, that might be more comfortable or convenient for you. Both are free of charge.)

Of course, there are dozens of different free and more commercial systems, but for now, I only wanted to give you a brief and free impression, of what’s easily possible. Fascinated? Would you love further getting-started’s? Need help with my micro tutorial? Let me know! :-)

DAQRIcompany announces a new milestone in the project augmented reality tools open source AR SDK, ARToolKit. The Americans started to open beta ARToolKit-5 on Linux, Android, iOS, macOS, and Unity. New updates abound functional part and distributed Apache v2.0 license so that developers can create their own applications with minimal licensing restrictions.

ARReverie added a new tracking method which will detect an ImageTarget without creating external Marker database by combining multiple tech together such as P3P and optical flow for a more reliable reading key.

The system recognizes and track supports multiple images based on detection initialization at speeds of tens of milliseconds. Calibration, identification, and tracking of fully autonomous kept up to hundreds of detected images; working dynamic loading and saving individual images or sets.

ARTOOlkit+ For Unity:

ARReverie provides ARToolKit+ plugin for Unity brings the full functionality of ARToolKit into the Unity3D visual development environment. It consists of a set of Unity script components which integrate seamlessly with your Unity project, native plugins which implement the underlying core functionality, and a set of examples and accompanying resources that act as starting points.

Note: Plugin cost 45$(One Time) only and this amount will help the ARReverie Technology to explore the latest tech and transfer the knowledge.

System Requirements (Development & Deployment)

# Development Requirements:

• Mac OS X min. Sierra (version 10.12.3)
• X-Code min. Version 8.2.1 (Optional)
• Android Studio v2.1 and later (Optional)
• Unity3D (min. 5.5 installed on a macOS X), the free, Personal Edition, is sufficient for a start
• The Unity3D plugin of ARToolKit+: ARToolkit+ UnityPackage

# Development Requirements / Supported Target Platforms:

• iOS v7.0 and later (armv7, armv7s, arm64)
• Android v4.0.3 and later (armeabi-v7a, x86)
• MacOS v10.7 and later (x86_64)

Let’s Start Developing an application using ARToolKit + Unity

As a quick start with Unity3D and ARToolKit+, we are using one of the default example scenes shipped with the ARToolKit+ Unity package. This Tutorial describes how to create and demonstrate augment reality application using the Unity3D IDE and the ARToolKit+ for Unity SDK.

For the first tutorial, we’re going start from scratch and create an application that recognizes an image exposed to the computer’s/Mobile’s camera, tracks the image and augments a 3D model in the video feed over the tracked image.

Prerequisite (Tools Needed):

As discussed earlier Support for ARToolKit+ for Unity and the Unity3D IDE on Windows 10 is under test and is forthcoming. “MacOS based Unity3D IDE” is recommended.

• If you intend to build and deploy on Android, you’ll need to install Android SDK, which must include the NDK, Android Studio or Android command-line tools (for example, the Android ADB).
• If you intend to build and deploy on iOS you’ll need to install XCode.

Here in this tutorial, we are targeting Android as a deployment Platform, We will be using ARToolkit+ AR SDK by ARReverie and Unity 3D engine and Android SDK for this tutorial. Make sure you have downloaded the following before proceeding further.

Artoolkit Tutorial

1. Unity Engine (Version 2017.3 I’m using now)
2. ARToolkit+ V2.0 SDK for Unity( ARToolkit-Unity 6.0.2-Development)
3. ARToolkit Camera Calibration for macOS (Camera Calibration and ImageTarget Manager for OS-X)
4. Android SDK & Android Studio (Optional)

Step by Step Implementation

1. Setup a Simple Unity Project:

• Unity is a powerful and widely used game engine. Let’s start by creating a new Unity3D project by the name of “ARToolKit_ImageTarget”. (Disable Unity Analytics for now)
• Start Unity and enter a project name, browse to a location, enable the 3D radio button and click ‘Create Project’ button.

2. Download & Install ARToolkit+ “Calibration Tool” for your Mac machine:

• Download: “ARToolkit_Plus_macOS.dmg“
• Open download folder and run “ARToolKit_Plus_macOS.dmg” on your Mac Machine.
• Once make sure that “ARToolKit for macOS “ properly get installed on your MacBook.
• Now navigate to “/Applications/artoolkit6/SDK/Applications/” through your Finder and open “ARToolKit6 Image Database Utility”
• “ARToolKit+ Image Database Utility” is an offline utility provided by ARToolkit which help us to create/manage ImageTarget Database.

3. Import ARToolKit+ Unity packages inside Unity Asset Store:

• Import the custom UnityPackage / ARToolKit+ Unity Extension/ARToolKit+ SDK (ARToolkit+ Unity Package)
• To import a new custom package:
  1. Choose Assets > Import Package > Custom Package… to bring up File Explorer (Windows) or Finder (Mac).
  2. Select the package you want from Explorer or Finder, and the Import Unity Package dialog box displays, with all the items in the package pre-checked, ready to install. (See Fig 4: New install Import Unity Package dialog box.)

  3. Select Import and Unity puts the contents of the package into the Assets folder, which you can access from your Project View.

• If any “API Update” related dialog box appears, just click on “I Made a Backup” and go ahead.

4. Open Unity-Scene “2DTrackerTest” from ARToolkit inside Unity Project:

• Open Scene ‘2DTrackerTest’ inside Project window
• Project >> Test Scene >>2DTrackerTest.unity
• Then you are now able to see some game objects “ARToolkit“, “ISceneRoot“, “Marker scene 0” etc. inside Hierarchy window
• Delete “Marker scene 0”, “Marker scene 2”, “Marker scene 3” from Hierarchy window as shown in fig. below.

IMP NOTE: ARToolKit+ support Mac, Android, iOS or Linux as a deployment platform so we need to build the project for any of them inside Unity build settings. If there any error occurs like ‘ARToolKit+: Build target not supported’ just ignore it for now.

5. Import 3D model (Spider) from Unity Assets Store:

Now the fun part begins!!! let’s download 3D model with some animations for our augmented reality. For this tutorial, we choose one Green Spider from Unity Asset Store (free).

• You can open the Asset Store window by selecting ‘Window > Asset Store’ from the main menu. On your first visit, you will be prompted to create a free user account which you will use to access the Store subsequently.
• Navigate to: ‘Window > Asse Store’ OR Select ‘Asset Store Tab’
• In Asset Store window search for the keyword “Spider Green” and download the same, as shown in the screenshot below.

6. Add 3D model (Spider) Inside ImageTarget in Unity Scene

Afterward, we introduce our 3D model (downloaded from Asset Store) into parent ImageTarget, to do this:

• Expand ‘Spider Green’ folder inside Unity Project window
• For the 3D Spider to appear over ImageTarget/Marker, it needs to be made a child of “Marker scene1” (can be done by just dragging the SPIDER prefab in the Hierarchy panel).
• Then, whenever the ImageTarget is detected by a mobile device’s camera, all the children of the target will also appear together.
• Simply Drag &Drop SPIDER prefab inside ‘Marker scene 1’ in Hierarchy window.
• Delete all ‘Cylinder’ and ‘Cone’ GameObjects from Hierarchy window as shown in fig. below.
• Setup Spider Prefab: For ‘Spider’ 3d model maintain the Position, Rotation & Scale properties (mostly default)
  • Position: X=0, Y=0, Z=0
  • Rotation: X=-99.9, Y=0, Z=0
  • Scale: X=0.03, Y=0.03, Z=0.03

NOTE: This AR app will work on ImageTarget/Marker_Image even with a black and white image of the stones because the feature points will still remain (they usually depend on other factors like gradient, etc. instead of color).

You can download Marker Image from here. The target image is required that your computer’s camera will recognize and track while demonstrating ARToolKit6 Augmented Realty example applications.

7. Android Deployment Setup to Run App on Device:

We are almost done. Let’s save the scene: File >> Save Scene and move towards deployment step. At this point, if we select “Run” and point a print out of the image towards our webcam, the Spider get augmented over printout.

The last step is to build the project for Android. We need to go to “File >> Build Settings”. We need to add the current scene by selecting “Add Open Scene”. Then, we need to select a platform (Android) and then select “Switch Platform“. Here, we will have multiple options:

• Export Project: This will allow us to export the current Unity project to Android Studio so it can be edited and used to add more elements.
• Development Build: Enabling this will enable Profiler functionality and also make the Autoconnect Profiler and Script Debugging options available.

Unity provides a number of settings when building for Android devices – select from the menu (File > Build Settings… > Player Settings…) to see/modify the current settings.

Before pressing the Build And Run, we need to make some more changes in the “Player Settings” options in the Inspector panel:

Artoolkit Tutorial

• The Company Name needs to be changed; e.g. to “ARReverie”.
• Need to change the “Package Name” under “Identification” say, to “com.arreverie.artoolkitdemo”.

Artoolkit

Now, we can proceed to “Build and Run”. Other changes like Minimum API Level etc. can be made as per additional requirements. We will need to connect an Android mobile device via USB and enable USB debugging.

NOTE: We will also need to have an Android developer environment set up before we can test our Unity games on the device. This involves downloading and installing the Android SDK with the different Android platforms and adding our physical device to our system (this is done a bit differently depending on whether we are developing on Windows or Mac).

If you get stuck at any point, feel free to post us in the comment section below.

‘If you stuck at any point’ OR ‘Do you have any questions about this tutorial?’ OR ‘Do you have any suggestions for a new AR tutorial?’ Let me know in the comments section below.

Best of luck 🙂