Business AR cards

July 21st, 2009
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My interactive media project this semester is about the augmentation of the classic communication medium business card. I tried to extend it wisely, so that you can have the essential information of a businesscard (adress, email etc.) and at the same time create a very personal and interesting possibility to introduce yourself to others. I kept the physical businesscard and extended it digitally. I don’t think the “analog” business card will die soon, to many people it is almost like a status symbol and in Japan for example the “handing over” of a business card is quite a ritual. With my project i keep these possibilities and bring a new interesting touch to this communication medium.

Great work Jonas!

How does it work?

* The author creates a presentation, using a frontend tool (which is in development at the moment). He can import various media like images, video clips and 3D-models. The application exports this presentation as a XML file.

xml

* This XML file is uploaded to a webserver, together with all the necessary assets.
* From the URL of the XML presentation you generate a QR-Code. This unique QR-Code will lead the application to the right presentation, so that the application itself can stay the same and can be used by everyone…nobody has to compile his own version of the application to share his presentation.

qr

* Now you print the QR-Code on your business card, together with the AR-marker

Business card

* The person who gets your business card can now start the application on a website (since it is developed in flash you can run it in the browser) or download it to his computer.

The application was developed using FLARtoolkit, Papervision 3D, FLARmanager and the Ribbit API.

FLARManager v0.6

July 4th, 2009
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You can see a nice video tutorial from gotoandLearn here.

FLARManager is a lightweight framework that makes building FLARToolkit augmented reality applications easier. it is compatible with a variety of 3D engines, and provides a more robust event-based system for managing marker addition, update, and removal. it supports detection and management of multiple patterns, and multiple markers of a given pattern.

Where can I get it?

FLARManager can be downloaded via SVN at http://transmote.com/codeshare/FLARManager. Released versions are available in the /deploy folder, and current development lives in the /dev folder. (note, i don’t make any guarantee the code in /dev will work, or even compile!

Note: FLARManager is built to compile to Flash Player 10.

What are the licensing options?

FLARManager is available for download and use under two licenses:

* GPL License: FLARManager can be used for free under the GNU General Public License, v3. Source code of applications using FLARManager under the GPL must be provided free of charge on request.

* Commercial License: Source code of FLARManager applications can be protected with a commercial license, offered exclusively by ARToolworks. Applications using the commercial license do not have to provide source code, but must pay a licensing fee. Contact ARToolworks at sales@artoolworks.com for more information.

How do I use it?

You can find full documentation here, and tutorials and other info here. if you just want to get started quickly, read on…FLARManager is developed using Flex Builder, and a FLARManager project is included along with the source (that’s what the /.settings folder and .project and .actionScriptProperties files are). to get going with FLARManager in Flex Builder, go to File>Import>Flex Project…, set the ‘Project folder’ to the folder to which you downloaded/unzipped the source, uncheck ‘Use default location’, and hit Finish. you should be good to go.

To use FLARManager in other environments, just be sure you’re compiling one of the four (currently) example files as an Application/Main/Document class. this applies to Flex Builder as well, though it’s taken care of for you in the included Flex Builder project.

The four examples are:

FLARManagerTest_2D.as: a simple example that draws 2D outlines around detected markers.

FLARManagerTest_2D_NoVideo.as: runs marker detection on a source loaded from a file (e.g. .swf / .jpg) instead of a camera. Good for testing when it’s dark out, or when you’re cameraless.

FLARManagerTest_PV3D.as: The standard FLARToolkit + Papervision3D example, with lil’ cubes strewn around wherever you leave a marker.

FLARManagerTest_Flash3D.as: Draws a 3D outline around detected markers using Flash Player 10’s native 3D capabilities.

Upgrades

Adaptive thresholding

Markers are now detectable in varying and low illumination — great for web apps, where developers have no control over the end user’s lighting.

Support for Alternativa3D, Away3D, and Sandy3D

FLARManager now supports the above three frameworks, along with the existing support for Papervision3D and Flash Player 10 3D.

Tutorials and examples

The Inside FLARManager section in the nav bar above provides access to documentation and tutorials about FLARManager, as well as links to FLARToolkit-related content. simple tutorials are now available for basic 2D, 3D, and collada applications.

Optimization

Some changes under the hood, accompanied by extensive testing and profiling, allow FLARManager to run faster and more efficiently than before. Additonally, a number of features are now exposed to the developer to tweak performance on an application-by-application basis. Stay tuned for a detailed writeup on this.

FLARProxy update

FLARProxy allows developers to simulate marker detection with a mouse and keyboard. The functionality has not changed in this version, but it can now be activated via the external config file.