24. AR (Augmented Reality) GIS

This week, I am continue learn about XR and going deeper into the the field of AR (Augmented Reality), and focusing on the process of AR building and/or development. Also, I will have simple research of AR technology implant in general challenger.

AR is the blending experience of virtual content with real-world, with AR technology or system it could have many possible scenarios or patterns. There are three main AR patterns;

• World-scale is the rendering of the virtual content exactly where it would be in the physical world through AR devices.

• Tabletop is an anchor of virtual content on the physical surface as a 3D-printed model.

• Flyover is an 3D scene that through the device as a window into the virtual world.

To build or use AR, we must look at the runtime and APIs. AR runtime will render 3D scene to 2D image using the virtual camera in the virtual world, and physical camera also render the real-world 3D scene to 2D image. Then ARKit and ARCore APIs use sensors to precisely measure physical camera movement. Finally, AR Toolkit merage the virtual camera and physical camera scene or image to showcase at a device.

Also, there are specific APIs that render the virtual camera and scene;

• ARSceneView, it renders the scene is the 3D virtual world.

• OriginCamera, it define the origin position of the virtual camera in the virtual world with correspondence of the physical camera.

• TranslationFactor, it the scales translation from ARKit/ARCore of the physical camera movement.

• LocationDataSource, It is source that get the location data.

• ARLocationTrackingMode, It define and track how location update from data source.

The biggest part of world-scale AR interface is calibration, which the AR seconario work best is one-to-one correspondence between the position of the physical camera and virtual camera.

In the past decade, AR technology use and implement is rising rapidly. A interesting research I find of AR technology is "Invisible-to-Visible" augmented reality interface of Nissan. The tech of Invisible-to-Visible is interface that connect and convers the virtual information to real world of the car driving system.