Introduction – In this blog post i will be explaining what is ARCore and ARfoundation, how its used and how it works.
Sections
– What is AR?
– Principles of AR?
– What is AR Foundation?
– What is ARCore?
– How does it work?
– Fundemental Concepts
What is AR?
Augmented reality uses a camera to track the world position and implement 3D models into the real world space, this can be used in a muliple of ways. Before this was accesible on an everyday phones this was used for many sports matches on television but now is used widly for advertising, shows and consoles etc.
Principles of AR?
“1)World tracking: track the device’s position and orientation in physical space.
2)Plane detection: detect horizontal and vertical surfaces.
3)Point clouds, also known as feature points.
4)Reference points: an arbitrary position and orientation that the device tracks.
5)Light estimation: estimates for average color temperature and brightness in physical space.
6)Environment probes: a means for generating a cube map to represent a particular area of the physical environment.
7)Face tracking: detect and track human faces.
8)Image tracking: detect and track 2D images.
9) Object tracking: detect 3D objects ” Source – Unity3d.com
What is ARFoundation?
Ar foundation is an API that assists the function of augmented reality developing in unity. This API has its own unity namespace and consists of multiple of subsystems that support the core fuctionality of ARCore, ARkit and future platforms.”For now, it supports features such as vertical and horizontal plane detection, light estimation, feature points, AR scaling and AR anchors.” source – https://unity3d.com/how-to/create-AR-games-in-Unity-efficiently
What is ARCore?
ARCore is googles development for building augmented reality. “Using different APIs, ARCore enables your phone to sense its environment, understand the world and interact with information. Some of the APIs are available across Android and iOS to enable shared AR experiences.
ARCore uses three key capabilities to integrate virtual content with the real world as seen through your phone’s camera:
- Motion tracking allows the phone to understand and track its position relative to the world.
- Environmental understanding allows the phone to detect the size and location of all type of surfaces: horizontal, vertical and angled surfaces like the ground, a coffee table or walls.
- Light estimation allows the phone to estimate the environment’s current lighting conditions.” Source – https://developers.google.com/ar/discover “
Supported for different devices includes android and IOS in this link below:
https://developers.google.com/ar/discover/supported-devices
How does it work?
“Fundamentally, ARCore is doing two things: tracking the position of the mobile device as it moves, and building its own understanding of the real world.
ARCore’s motion tracking technology uses the phone’s camera to identify interesting points, called features, and tracks how those points move over time. With a combination of the movement of these points and readings from the phone’s inertial sensors, ARCore determines both the position and orientation of the phone as it moves through space.
In addition to identifying key points, ARCore can detect flat surfaces, like a table or the floor, and can also estimate the average lighting in the area around it. These capabilities combine to enable ARCore to build its own understanding of the world around it.
ARCore’s understanding of the real world lets you place objects, annotations, or other information in a way that integrates seamlessly with the real world. You can place a napping kitten on the corner of your coffee table, or annotate a painting with biographical information about the artist. Motion tracking means that you can move around and view these objects from any angle, and even if you turn around and leave the room, when you come back, the kitten or annotation will be right where you left it.” Source – https://developers.google.com/ar/discover
Fundemetal concepts –
1) Motion tracking
2) Environmental understanding
3) Light estimation
4) User interaction
5) Oriented points
6) Anchors and trackables
7) Augmented Images
8) Sharing
Source – https://developers.google.com/ar/discover/concepts
Thank you for reading,
James Lacey
Citation –
https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.xr.arfoundation@2.2/manual/index.html – Principles of AR?
https://www.fi.edu/what-is-augmented-reality
https://computer.howstuffworks.com/augmented-reality1.htm
https://developers.google.com/ar/discover
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