The developers of the Layar Augmented Reality browser have just released a video showing early development of marker integration. This would bring in marker positioning for indoor use. This is great news, but unfortunately there is currently no known timeline for release of these features.
In the meantime, I have developed a way of using QR codes to improve Layar’s accuracy for applications where 3D models need to be fairly well placed. This works indoors and outdoors.
Please leave your comments, suggestions, and questions in the post comments – I hope you find this useful!
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John Sietsma
Oct 5, 2010 -
Hi there, I’m working with Layar down in Melbourne.
Great post! The sound level was down low, so I missed some of parts toward the end of the video. Excellent ideas though.
John
Josh
Oct 5, 2010 -
@John
The video has now been replaced by one with better audio. I’m glad you liked it!
phraedus
Oct 7, 2010 -
This is brilliant. Fraggin genius. It overcomes the problems GPS have indoors etc to create an accurate location when it’s important.
Jacob Knudsen
Oct 7, 2010 -
Yes, very clever. I work at museum and have been looking for a way to do AR indoors. Thanks…I’ll have to try this.
John Sietsma
Oct 8, 2010 -
Hi Jacob,
You may also want to have a look at Junaio’s LLA markers for indoor positioning.
http://www.junaio.com/publisher/llamarker
John
Jacob Knudsen
Oct 8, 2010 -
Hi John
Thanks…your right. This also looks interesting.
Jacob
Josh
Oct 9, 2010 -
@John
Thanks for the reminder! I’d seen a video demo of this via Bruce Sterling’s Beyond the Beyond a while back, but wasn’t sure how mature the implementation was. Any thoughts on results?
The concept is definitely closer to something very useful than Layar at the moment, but I’m wondering how robust Junaio’s platform is?
John Sietsma
Oct 10, 2010 -
@Josh
I haven’t tried Junaio yet, but it looks mature. It also seems like it would also be easy enough to support both Layar and Junaio by having two separate views.
Josh
Oct 12, 2010 -
@John
I have just been exploring the Junaio LLA markers, and general 3D model registration. There are definitely some great things about Junaio:
* Support for animated MD2 models,
* (so far) really impressive tracking of compass and accelerometers, and better GPS than I’ve experienced in Layar,
* “GLUE”ing models to natural textures
It looks like the LLA markers work the same as the QR marker system I demo’ed (from http://www.junaio.com/publisher/llamarker):
“If a valid marker is found, the location of the smartphone will be adjusted according to the encoded latitude and longitude coordinates of the marker while the GPS sensors of the smartphone are ignored. This fixed location will stay until you wish to continue or a different marker is found.”
Which is a shame, as there is the possibility of doing pose calculation based on tracking markers and perspective distortion.
Also, the quality of 3D models you can work with is much lower (and strictly enforced) than the Layar specs:
“Specifications Overview
Low overall size due to network bandwidth,
Maximum amount of vertices: up to approx. 1000 (recommended: 500) – the lower the better,
Texture size (max 512×512 -> 256×256 recommended),
The models need to be encrypted. Textures or material files are not encrypted.”
Compared to the multiple ~5000 poly models we have had going in Layar.
I also do like the way the QR codes can throw you into Layar and into the correct content. There is the possibility slightly modifying the QR URL so that it will either launch, or ask you to install Layar if you don’t have it, so you can pretty seamlessly tag the real world with 3D, without viewers needing to know anything other than “that’s a QR code”.
I’ll definitely be using Junaio in the future though, if just for the GLUE feature.
John Sietsma
Oct 13, 2010 -
Interesting that the GPS works better. I’d always thought that the GPS was a hardware issue … and a pretty big issue at that.
The model restrictions don’t seem that bad to me considering that we’ve got a 320×480 screen size, even a 256×256 texture is likely to be overkill. I’ve found data download speed to be a major issue, even for simple text.
QR codes do give a nice link from world to phone.
I’ve got to start playing around with Junaio!
David Dean
Mar 6, 2011 -
Hi Josh
Thanks for this, just got it working with my porpoise implementation.
Fantastic bit of work.. Well done.
I am looking at adding a Radio button filter to add an extra option of completely static long and lat or relative long and lat (your version) as I have some instances where the GPS movements are still erratic after imposing the relative fix you implemented.
You have used a command line to launch the Layar app with the wanted layar and TextBoxes.
Can you point me at documentation, if it exists, for launching Layar from the command line and what variables can be use. I have a situation where I want to start Layar in map mode rather than camera mode.
Do you know what variable the Radio button would have ?
You also said:
“There is the possibility slightly modifying the QR URL so that it will either launch, or ask you to install Layar if you don’t have it”
Any further thoughts on this ?
Again thanks for sharing with us.
David
Josh
Mar 7, 2011 -
Hi David,
Glad that you’ve found it useful! 🙂
All the information regarding launching Layar can be found in the Layar “Intent” documentation.
Hope that helps!
Ayr
Jun 19, 2011 -
Great method even after all this time it looks like the best way to improve accuracy. I assume this would be improved further skyhook implementation.
Anyway my main question is if a model has been placed with this method can the user approach the model or would it always be moving away from user to maintain the calibrated distance? eg if markers place model 10m away from user and I walk 5m closer will model be 5m away from user or will it be pushed away to maintain the 10m? Thanks. Layar I understand are looking at intents with lon/Lat included but are still undecided. 🙁
Josh
Jun 20, 2011 -
The method applies an initial offset, and then everything works as normal relative to movement. In practice, the results will depend on what is coming out of the GPS. The markers can be very small, so you could anchor say 8 locations around a site, and regardless of the accuracy of the phone’s GPS, you could have reasonable AR based on the (much more reliable) digital compass.
Adam
Jul 1, 2011 -
Can’t get the QR scanning to work. I followed all the steps. and the “pipe” seems to be running fine also. The RSS feed link worked also.
When my phone scans the QR code, the link shows up as text, Layar is not opening up. Layar is installed on the phone as well.
I’m not sure what I’m doing incorrectly.
Josh
Jul 1, 2011 -
@Adam,
It sounds like one of a few things:
i) you could be encoding the URL as “text” rather than “url” in the QR-code generator,
ii) you could be using a QR-code reader that doesn’t auto-forward – some just display the URL
iii) the “layar://” intent might be slightly different if you’re not using an iPhone with Layar installed. Check the Layar documentation for how to trigger this behaviour for your platform.
Hope that helps.