AR, when Virtual world meets the real world

What Is Augmented Reality (AR)?

Augmented reality (AR) is an enhanced version of the real physical world that is achieved through the use of digital visual elements, sound, or other sensory stimuli and delivered via technology. It is a growing trend among companies involved in mobile computing and business applications in particular.

Amid the rise of data collection and analysis, one of augmented reality’s primary goals is to highlight specific features of the physical world, increase understanding of those features, and derive smart and accessible insight that can be applied to real-world applications. Such big data can help inform companies’ decision making and gain insight into consumer spending habits, among others.

Augmented Reality vs. Virtual Reality

Augmented reality and virtual reality are often confused, so let’s clarify. Augmented reality uses the existing real-world environment and puts virtual information—or even a virtual world—on top of it to enhance the experience. For example, think of Pokémon Go, where users are searching in their real-life neighborhoods for animated characters that pop up on their phone or tablet. In the NFL, broadcasters use AR technology to better analyze plays.

In contrast, virtual reality immerses users into an entirely different environment, typically a virtual one created and rendered by computers. For example, virtual reality users may be immersed in an animated scene or a digital environment. Virtual reality can also be used to photograph an actual local location and embed it in a VR app. Through a virtual reality headset, someone can walk around Italy as if they were actually there.

Types of augmented reality

In deciding which type of AR technology you’ll need for your business, you’ll first have to determine what kind of AR to use. There are two types of augmented reality: marker-based and marker-less. Choosing one of these types of AR will determine how you’ll be able to display your images and information.

Marker-based AR is created using image recognition to identify objects already programmed into your AR device or application. When placing objects in view as points of reference, they can help your AR device determine the position and orientation of the camera. This is generally achieved by switching your camera to grayscale and detecting a marker to compare that marker with all the others in its information bank. Once your device finds a match, it uses that data to mathematically determine the pose and place the AR image in the right spot.

Marker-less AR is more complex as there’s no point in which your device will focus on. Because of this, your device must recognize items as they appear in view. Using a recognition algorithm, the device will look for colors, patterns, and similar features to determine what that object is and then, using time, accelerometer, GPS, and compass information, it will or orient itself and use a camera to overlay an image of whatever you’d like within your real-world surroundings.

Integrating AR into your employee training and education

In the workplace, adding augmented reality to your processes and procedures can help enhance the learning and comprehension benefits for your employees. AR training is an educational experience presented through the software on AR devices to help employees gain critical professional skills. This type of training experience can be launched at any time, any place with the right software.

AR can also help guide and support employees regardless of their location, leading to better collaboration and safer working conditions in your fields. By enhancing traditional learning methods, this method can offer more information for better comprehension. Some ways your team could use AR would be:

Performance support

Learning and training modules

New hire onboarding

On-demand training opportunities

Customer service and experience

Many industries and sectors already use AR for business processes, including:

Retail. Employees can use AR for onboarding and training sessions. It helps new employees in their future transactions, such as sales training, touring the sales floor, and preparing for a retail environment. AR can also help customers test products before purchasing or learn how to use them within their environments. This can create better engagement or help customers solve problems by providing actionable information in a real-world context.

Manufacturing. Technology can offer step-by-step instructions, allowing trainers to provide feedback during practice for better retention. Using mixed reality also enables employees to learn while on the job, keeping their hands free to perform work.

Healthcare. Getting hands-on experience in performing procedures without risk is imperative for healthcare professionals. AR provides the guidance to practically, yet safely, learn about anatomy and surgeries.

Military. AR is integrated in combat training to stimulate situational and operational environments so soldiers have awareness of their time, space, and forces.

Automobile. AR can help train and allow specialists to explore current and future models, along with their internal systems.

Besides industry-specific uses, many industries currently use AR apps to identify, track, and resolve technical issues. It can also help in other non-physical procedure cases like for marketing as a advertising, entertainment, and events tool by allowing users to get information simply through their phones.

Benefits Of AR

Let us see some benefits of AR for your business or organization and how to integrate it:

Integration or adoption depends on your use case and application. You may want to employ it for monitoring maintenance and production work, perform virtual walkthroughs of real estate property, advertise products, boost remote design, etc.

Today, virtual fitting rooms can help decrease purchase returns and improve purchase decisions made by buyers.

Salespeople can produce and publish interesting branded AR content and insert ads in them so people can get to know their products when they watch the content. AR improves engagement.

In manufacturing, AR markers on images of manufacturing equipment help project managers to monitor work remotely. It reduces the need to use digital maps and plants. For instance, a device or machine can be pointed on location to determine if it will fit on position.

Immersive real-life simulations are delivering pedagogical benefits to learners. Simulations in game-based learning and training come in with psychological benefits and increase empathy among learners as shown by researchers.

Medical students can use AR and VR simulations to try first and as many surgeries as possible without hefty budgets or unnecessary injuries to patients, all with immersion and near-real experiences.

Using AR, future astronauts can try their first or next space mission.

AR enables virtual tourism. AR apps, for instance, can provide directions to desirable destinations, translate the signs on the street, and provide information on sight-seeing. A good example is a GPS navigation app. AR content enables the production of new cultural experiences, for instance, where additional reality is added to museums.

Augmented reality is expected to expand to $150 billion by 2020. It is expanding more than virtual reality with $120 billion compared to $30 billion. AR-enabled devices are expected to reach 2.5 billion by 2023.

Developing own branded applications is one of the most common ways that the companies are using to engage with AR technology. Companies can still place ads on third-party AR platforms and content, buy licenses on developed software, or rent spaces for their AR content and audiences.

Developers can use AR development platforms such as ARKit and ARCore to develop applications and integrate AR into business applications.

AR Example In Real Life

Elements 4D is a chemistry learning application that employs AR to make chemistry more fun and engaging. With it, students make paper cubes from the element blocks and place them in front of their AR cameras on their devices. They can then see representations of their chemical elements, names, and atomic weights. Students can bring together the cubes to see if they react and to see chemical reactions.

Google Expeditions, where Google uses cardboards, already allows the students from across the world to do virtual tours for history, religion, and geography studies.

Human Anatomy Atlas lets students explore over 10,000 3D human body models in seven languages, to let students learn the parts, how they work, and to improve their knowledge.

Touch Surgery simulates surgery practice. In partnership with DAQRI, an AR company, medical institutions can see their students practicing surgery on virtual patients.

IKEA Mobile App is famous in real estate and home product walkthroughs and testing. Other apps include Nintendo’s Pokemon Go App for gaming.

Developing And Designing For AR

AR development platforms are platforms on which you can develop or code AR apps. Examples include ZapWorks, ARToolKit, MAXST for Windows AR and smartphone AR, DAQRI, SmartReality, ARCore by Google, Windows’ Mixed Reality AR platform, Vuforia, and ARKit by Apple. Some allow the development of apps for mobile, others for P.C., and on different operating systems.

AR development platforms allow developers to give apps different features such as support for other platforms such as Unity, 3D tracking, text recognition, creation of 3D maps, cloud storage, support for single and 3D cameras, support for smart glasses,

Different platforms allow the development of marker-based and/or location-based apps. Features to consider when selecting a platform include cost, platform support, image recognition support, 3D recognition, and tracking is a most important feature, support for third-party platforms such as Unity from where users can import and export AR projects and integrate with other platforms, cloud or local storage support, GPS support, SLAM support, etc.

The AR apps developed with these platforms support a myriad of features and capabilities. They may allow content to be viewed with one or a range of AR glasses that have pre-made AR objects, support for reflection mapping where objects have reflections, real-time image tracking, 2D and 3D recognition,

Some SDK or software development kits allow the development of apps by drag and drop method while others require knowledge in coding.

Some AR apps allow users to develop from scratch, upload, and edit, own AR content.

Conclusion

In this augmented reality, we learned that technology allows the overlaying of virtual objects in real-world environments or objects. It uses a combination of technologies including SLAM, depth tracking, and natural feature tracking, and object recognition, among others.

This augmented reality tutorial dwelt on introducing AR, the basics of its operation, the technology of AR, and its application. We finally considered the best practice for those interested in integrating and developing for AR.