Augmented reality tecniques and SDKs - Quallcomm Vuforia, Metaio etc.

In the last years we have seen hundreds or thousands new Augmented Reality applications. There are AR games for children, interior design AR apps, marketing tools to promote your products in AR and event though I haven't tested I'm sure there are AR adult entertainment apps as well. Because I'm using my corporate laptop I'm not going to google and try to search for them.

Most of the Augmented Reality solutions (Apps and other tools) are based on same underlying techniques I will present below:

1. Quallcomm Vuforia
Without checking any statistics I say that Quallcomm Vuforia is the market leader in Augmented Reality apps if we are talking about number of released apps. Quallcomm Vuforia is SDK for software developers that want to have Augmented Reality function in their application. If application developer buys Vuforia SDK, they just have to study the installation of SDK and have the 3D-models of content they want to present in Augmented Reality. Vuforia is so called Live AR. By Live AR I mean that it uses live picture from the mobile phone's or tablet's camera and combines real picture with Augmented Reality (3D models) in the software.

Without going into technical details Quallcomm Vuforia seems to be easy tool to publish simple or semi-simple augmented reality. However in some more specific cases there are techniques that are more flexible.

2. Metaio SDK
Munich bases Meatiao was pioneer in Augmented Reality. This German company developed Augmented Reality SDK long before Quallcomm Vuforia. In May 2015 Metaio was bought by Apple and at the end of 2015 Apple stopped selling Metaio SDK for new developers but you can still see Augmented Reality applications that are built on Metaio SDKs that were bought before Decemer 2015. The big question is what is Apple going to do with Metaio Augmented Reality?

3. The other SDKs: Total Immersion D'Fusion, Wikitude and some others
Other Augmented Reality SDKs are for example Total Immersion D'Fusion and Wikitude. Previously sold String is not on the market anymore. In addition to these there are some smaller players on the market but in most of the cases what they sell is not a SDK but combination of licences and professional services. For example Dutch company Twnkls owns IPRs to their own two-point scaling method and build Augmenter Reality Solutions based on that.

Augmented reality solutions examples - Augmented reality videos

Interior design is one of the areas where we can find many augmented reality (AR) solutions.

World famous Swedish furniture retailer IKEA has mobile phone application that shows IKEA furniture in real life. The IKEA furniture augmented reality application works together with IKEA catalogue. Below you will see IKEA augmented reality app. demonstration video.



Even more sophisticated augmented reality interior design software is VividAR. VividAR is an interior design AR solution where you can add 3D models of furniture to the 3D picture of the room you are designing. As in many other 3D AR solutions you need to have a picture of the room with marker and then you can start. Below you will find VividAR introduction video.

Augmented reality summit - Augmented reality events - AR summit

One of the biggest augmented reality events is the Augmented reality summit that takes place in London at June 20th 2013. This yearly event uses marketing line "Augmented Reality - Where the physical & digital worlds meet", which describes very well what augmented reality is in practice. 2013 AR summit is third year when Augmented reality summit takes place.

In the AR summit competition they are seeking best augmented reality solutions in the following categories:

• Best AR Technology Platform 2013
• Best AR Hardware Innovation 2013
• Most Innovative use of AR 2013
• Best AR Practical case study 2013
• AR Developer of 2013
• AR Awards Champion 2013

History of augmented reality (AR)

The idea of the augmented reality (AR) was mentioned for the first time in the texts of author L. Frank Baum in 1901. L. Frank Baum mentions for the first time the idea of an electronic display or spectacles that overlay data onto real life. L. Frank Baum names this as a "character marker". For more than 50 years augmented reality was only a fictional element but 1957 cinematographer Morton Heilig got patent to his simulator called Sensorama. Before 1990's augmented reality solutions were mainly prototypes of individual developers and scientists. In 1990's more advanced computing enabled more sophisticated and practical augmented reality solutions and this development has continued with growth in the new millenium. Today we see many augmented reality softwares, techical devices and cyberspaces. The most well known augmented reality solution at the moment is Google Glasses. Beta version of Google Glasses has been presented to the audience.

What is augmented reality?

At the beginning it's good to define what actually is augmented reality (AR). Usually augmented reality is defined as a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video or graphics. A very simple example of augmented reality is real online picture which has some added computer generated graphics. Example of commonly used augmented reality solutiosn is for example interior design software where you can add certain elements to the real picture of the room.