This projcet is made with Unity 2019.4.1f1and Vuforia 9.3.3 on Windows 10. It contains 5 AR widgets using image from the Vuforia Mars database as tracking spot. The widgets provides informations that are commonly needed by people such as time,date,tempture, and etc. The idea of the project is that in the future when AR become common in people's life, they could interact with AR widgets like the ones I have in this project in their daily routine.
Dowloading
Download the 5 Vuforia Markers(Astronaut,Drone,Fissure,Oxygen,Mars.Front) and print them out.(Link1, Link2)
Download UnityHub and install Unity version 2019.4.1f1
Download from Github Page and unzip the file.
Add and Open the project folder as a new project in Unity Hub.
Click on the play button once the project is loaded into Unity.
Have the 5 Vuforia Markers ready and point the webcam at them for tracking.
Keys
Register for an Vuforia Developer Account and get a license key.
Register for an openweathermap.org account and generate an API key.
Add the Vuforia license key in Vuforia Configuration tab in Unity
Replace the api_key variable value with your API key in Temp_Changer.cs, windTeller.cs, and condition_control.cs
Widget 1 - Clock
The clock widget are is able to show you the current time h/mm AM/PM format according to your system's time and it will update every 30 seconds. To make the clock widget work, point your webcam at the Astronaut marker and turn the marker sideway to make the front of the clock facing you.
Clock Widget
Widget 2 - Calendar
The Calendar widget is able to show you the current date in mm/dd/yy format according to your system's date and it will update every 30 seconds. To make the date widget work, point your webcam at the Drone marker.
Calendar Widget
Widget 3 - Temperature and Humidity
The Temperature and Humidity widget is able to show you the current temperture(Fahrenheit) and humidity value(%) in Chicago that are requested from openweathermap.org and will send a request for updates every 30 seconds. To make this widget work, point your webcam at the Fissure marker. The two animated bar gives a visual representation on tempreature(red) and humidity(blue). However, the animated bar only has animation for temperature ranging from -50 F to 110 F.
Temperature and Humidity idget
Widget 4 - Wind Flag
The Wind Flag widget are able to show you the current wind speed(mph) and the direction of the wind in Chicago that are requested from openweathermap.org and will send a request for updates every 30 seconds. To make this widget work, point your webcam at the Oxygen marker. The flag will give you a visual demonstration on how strong the wind is and the direction of the wind relative to North represented by the arrow next to the red N. If you want to know the direction of wind in the real world, simply point the arrow to the direction of North in real life.
Wind Widget
Widget 5 - Weather Condition
The Weather Condition widget are able to show you an animated weather condition in Chicago that are requested from openweathermap.org and will send a request for updates every 30 seconds. There are 9 conditions in total and each of them have a unique sound effect. To make this widget work, point your webcam at the Mars.Front marker. When the widget shows up the first time, it will show all the weather condtions animation(first image on the right), and it will need couple seconds before it can show the current weather condition(second image). It will also display a description of the current condition in text form, and you can also press the right and left arrow key on your keyboard to cycle throught all the animations.
F.Y.I, for widget 3 to 5, when the camera loses track of the marker in the middle of the update before the data is receieved and displayed, you will need to wait another 30 seconds before the data is updated and displayed properly again.
In the future, as the technology of augmented reality keeps developing, AR will gradually become one essential part of people’s life. Imaging a day where people would have AR widgets like the ones in my project every single day at their disposal. The augmented reality objects that seems just like playthings today will become something that everybody needs in their daily routine in the future. And that day would not be far since the AR technology is already pretty advanced, so what if people start using AR glasses regularly. Will any of the widgets I made or similar AR objects actually become useful?
My answer would be yes and no. Some of the widget will get to be used regularly and some of the widget will not. In my opinion, the biggest advantage of AR objects is the fact that they are virtual. Some people would say it is one of the biggest disadvantages because it leads to the lack of immersion since you were not able to touch any of the AR objects, but they forget the fact that virtual objects can have properties that real life objects will never be able to possess. Just like Virtual Reality that lets the user do things that they will not be able to do in real life, AR objects will grant the user things that they will never be able to have in real life.
For example, I would be more than happy to use the weather condition widget demonstrated in my project if I regularly use AR glasses or some sort in the future. The reason is just because it is not possible to have a real-life object like it, it also provides useful information that most people need for their daily routine. Imaging waking up to see a life 3d animated representation of today’s weather, it is much more fun than to look at you phone for those boring images.
However, there are some widget that I think I will probably never use. For example, the date and the time widgets. Not just the one I created, but all the objects that meant to be used as a clock or a calendar. If people actually wear AR glasses every day, this kind of information should be displayed to them all the time in their glasses’ interface. It would not be wise to create an AR object just to show the user time and date which are much easier to achieve via other ways. However, if the clock or the calendar object look like some crazy fantasy stuff, then I might reconsider.
Overall, it will not be possible for someone to create a real-life object like some of the widgets I created in virtual space. The AR widgets could transform between different shape, color, and physical properties in no time which is impossible to achieve in real life, but that is easy to achieve in the virtual space. If Virtual Reality lets you experience reality in dreams, then Augmented Reality lets you experience dreams in Reality.
Windy Sound - Mike Koenig
Wind Sound - Mark DiAngelo
Cartoon Birds 2 Sound - Daniel Simion
Thunder Strike 3 Sound - Mike Koenig
Rain Background Sound - Mike Koenig
Snowing Sound - Mike Koenig