This is an augmented reality project developed in Unity for CS 428 at the University of Illinois at Chicago. This project focuses on developing widgets that display different information such as date, time, and weather conditions in Chicago. This project also focused on some of the uses of AR technology and how it can be more streamlined and mainstream with AR glasses in the future.

Programs Required:

• Unity 2019.4.1f1

• Vuforia 9.3.3

Items Required:

• Unity Project: https://github.com/dylan-ou/CS-428-Project-1

• Webcam

• Mars Fiducial Markers -
  https://www.evl.uic.edu/aej/428/20files/4%20mars%20markers.png

• Mars Markers (front and back) -
  https://www.evl.uic.edu/aej/428/20files/2%20more%20mars%20markers.png

Steps:

1. Download Unity 2019.4.1f1 onto your computer

2. Download the project to your computer by either cloning the Github repository or downloading the zip

3. Open Unity Hub and find the newly downloaded project. Select that and it should appear in the list of projects

4. Open that project and wait until you get to the Unity Editor. Make sure that Vuforia is in the project. If not, you can download Vuforia and drag that file into the Packages folder

5. Make sure that there is a camera attached to the computer. This application will not work without a camera. You can either use the default webcam or a USB webcam to make it work. Also make sure you are in good lighting as the webcam needs to get a good look of the markers for this application to work

6. Press Play at the top of Unity Editor and the application should run on the Game Screen

7. Point the camera at the markers and enjoy!

Sounds

• Rain Inside House: http://soundbible.com/2065-Rain-Inside-House.html

• Thunder Strike 2: http://soundbible.com/2016-Thunder-Strike-2.html

• Rainforest: http://soundbible.com/1818-Rainforest-Ambience.html

• Cicada: http://soundbible.com/920-Cicada.html

• Sleigh Bells: https://soundbible.com/1256-Sleigh-Bells-Ringing.html

• Hypnotic Puzzle: http://soundimage.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Hypnotic-Puzzle2.mp3

• Cyber Dream Loop: http://soundimage.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Cyber-Dream-Loop.mp3

• The Darkness Below: http://soundimage.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/The-Darkness-Below_Looping.mp3

• Triumph of the Clockmaker: http://soundimage.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/The-Triumph-of-the-Clock-Maker.mp3

I think that in the future, there is definitely a use for augmented reality glasses. The method of display for information is constantly changing as the technology gets better and AR glasses would just be another medium to take all that information in. Primarily, I think that there are uses for the glasses within art, entertainment, education, and utility. The technology itself embraces a form of interactivity to use in the first place. It could come in the form of widgets to scan in the environment. Widgets that can display the date, the time, and the current weather would be quite useful to see out there in the world, but I believe there are other uses for them.

I think that the use of widgets could aid tourists travelling in foreign countries where the language is different to the tourist’s. The topic of Google Translate’s AR technology came up before in the class, but I think this concept could also be extended to widgets. Maybe the glasses would not need to translate for us after all. Instead, there could be widgets for banners, signs, panels, and anything that required reading that would change languages depending on the user’s native language. One example could be a restaurant with a menu with AR widgets. One would just need to look at the menu and the menu’s content would be displayed to the user. It would not matter what the user’s native language would be, though it would be a lot of languages to take into account for the developer. Another example I can think of is universal signs. Signs could take up less space if the signs would change languages. With AR glasses, that could be a reality. All you would need is a widget to scan and let the AR glasses take care of the rest for you.

Another idea for these types of widgets is a rather unique one. It came to me when I took a class about the history of museums and the concept of exhibition. The final paper I had to write required me to make an exhibit using the resources I had as a university student (poor, no space to host an exhibition, lack of resources to display artwork, etc.). Being a computer science major, I immediately thought that virtual and augmented reality would be a good medium to display artwork within a space. Falling under the category of education, it would be possible to replicate exhibits that were only seen decades ago. Specifically, it would be able to recreate exhibits that contained performative art. Performative art as a medium required interactivity with the viewer, much like the purposes of virtual and augmented reality. You had to be there to understand the message, but I think having the AR glasses would help bring back those types of exhibits. Of course it is not real for the viewer and that requires a suspension of disbelief, but I think that having a museum being based around using AR glasses would be interesting.