Augmented Reality

A little while ago something rather cool caught our eye called Augmented Reality or AR.

The software recognises a printed symbol and is able to track and superimpose the 3D object so that it adjusts and moves relative to the position of the symbol in real time. This simply requires a PC with a web cam and it displays this alternative reality on the computer screen.

We could see that this potentially could work very well for a number of our clients as it can explain and demonstrate how components or systems work and interact with one another in an engaging and interactive way.

At the time, as with most emerging technologies, creating an AR project was very costly and a good deal of the cost was in purchasing licenses from a handful of software developers that were pioneering this.

We needed to find a way around this to bring it within reach of our clients’ budgets. So, after a period of research and development, we worked out how to do it ourselves using the FLAR Toolkit and Papervision 3D and the expertise of Justin, our Flash developer.

Our first project was to create a bittern, one of Britain’s rarest birds, to highlight on Cemex’s stand at Ecobuild the conservation work the company undertakes. AR was part of an overall project to design and build the stand.

The bittern, or ‘Fern’ as we affectionately named her, really drew people to the stand, not just because it was something new to play with but, because we had her eerie booming call ringing out across Earlscourt, she was even the subject of a tweet or two.

Right now we are developing a number of new AR projects so watch this space for more augmented geekery.