Project 1

Description:

This project consists of two augmented reality knickknacks mapped onto real-world cubes using Unity 2020.3.6f1 and Vuforia Engine 10.9.3

The first knickknack is a model of the Statue of Liberty in New York City and uses a merge cube, and the other knickknack is a model of Millennium Park in Chicago and uses a class cube. Place the physical cubes in front of the camera inside Unity while the program is running to see the knickknacks. The knickknacks have various features that are displayed on the sides of each cube.

These features include:

- The current weather conditions of each city are displayed using OpenWeatherMap API. The New York City knickknack displays temperature in degrees Celsius, and the Chicago knickknack displays temperature in degrees Fahrenheit.

- The current times of each city are displayed by utilizing the systems collections library.

- Ambient sounds for each knickknack are played when the cubes have been detected

- Various animations have been implemented to each knickknack to really bring the souvenirs to life

Build Instructions:

  1. Install Unity Hub from here.

  2. Install Unity Editor version 2021.3.6f1 from here by clicking the Unity Hub button for that version. Select the modules for any platforms you want to build to.

  3. Install Git onto your machine from here and Git Large File Storage from here.

  4. Clone the project's GitHub repository into a folder using the command "git clone https://github.com/NicholasRachfal/NicholasRachfalProject1.git"

  5. Unpack the larger file objects by running the command "git lfs pull"

  6. Open Unity Hub, click the Open button, and select the project folder. Click on the project with the project folder name in Unity Hub to open it in the Unity Editor.

  7. Navigate to Assets/Scenes/ and drag the MyKnickKnacks.unity scene into the Unity hierarchy. Then delete the default scene.

  8. Click on the play button at the top middle of the screen to start the program. To build the program into an executable, click on File -> Build Settings, select the platform you want to build for, click the Build button, select a file name and location, and click the Save button.


Statue of Liberty Knickknack

Models from online:

CONATINER SHIP STATUE OF LIBERTY AIRPLANE

Models I created:

FIRE PARTICLE SYSTEM HOT AIR BALOON

Sounds from online:

Fire crackling sound: https://freesound.org/people/aiduxxx/sounds/630480/

Textures from online:

Stylized water texture: Stylize Water Texture | 2D Water | Unity Asset Store

Millennium Park Knickknack

Models from online:

SKY SCRAPERS POLICE CAR & TAXI


AUDIENCE PACK & CELEBRATION ANIMATIONS PERSON SITTING & SWINGING FEET ANIMATION

STREET BENCH

Models I created:

THE BEAN TREE

Sounds from online:

City traffic sound: https://freesound.org/people/erdemvideography/sounds/462106/


Textures from online:

Paving stone texture: Paving Stone 01 | 2D Floors | Unity Asset Store

Kajaman's roads texture: Kajaman's Roads - Free | 3D Roadways | Unity Asset Store


Discussion:

I have very high hopes for the future of Augmented Reality. When AR glasses become an everyday item, there will be endless possibilities as to what objects we might want to have augmented in our daily lives. Throughout this project, we got to see that there are some cool applications that can be implemented with augmented reality, such as a clock that keeps the real time and a display for the current weather relative to a specific location. Therefore, we can see how easily and convenient it might be to have some sort of detection pattern on your wall that will then display the time and the weather at a mere glance of it. Kind of light a central augmented hub that allows for different widgets that can used. However, while these applications are neat, I don’t think augmented reality will become extremely common until it starts to greatly benefit the users. Telling the time and getting the weather is definitely nice to have but once we start applying augmented reality to solve complex problems, that is when I think augmented reality will usher in a new era. For example, it could be really nice to have a CTA bus sign augmented to highlight the next incoming busses. Often schedules are put together and contain a ton information that just isn’t that relevant to you at that moment. Another useful application could be augmenting street signs that give you additional navigational information respective to your desired location. For instance, instead of having some navigational speech tell you take the next left, your AR glasses will display an arrow pointing that is pointing left next to the street name when it is detected. Applications like these are much more helpful in the sense that this additional information is much more helpful than purely the physical object itself. Ultimately, these are just a couple examples, but the possibilities are endless, and the future of augmented reality is really exciting.