Before starting the project, I made sure to switch the platform to WebGL so that it could be uploaded to Zapworks later.
The Zappar Universal AR plugin also had to be installed via a Git URL.
After creating a Zappar camera and image tracking target, I used the training tool to import the image you see above. This was relatively simple to complete and could be replaced with any image in future projects.
To import the 3D model, I had to import a custom package after unzipping the provided file.
In order for the object to appear when the phone camera detects the image, the 3D object must be visible only when a certain criteria is met.
Therefore, it was essential to hide the sea shack before building the project. After setting up the correct file structure and building the scene, the project was now complete.
Ideas For Production Piece:
Augmented Reality is a relatively new piece of technology, with the first commercial application appearing in 2008 (Javornik, 2016). AR exploded with the launch of Pokémon Go in 2016, with over 1 billion downloads as of 2023 (Krambs, 2023).
This game demonstrated that AR can be used in every day life if it is effective and seamless.
However, outside of video games, there is still a lot of potential for Augmented Reality use. For example, a user may walk past a restaurant and wonder what rating it has. By pointing their phone camera at the building a star rating screen could appear, letting the user know if the restaurant is worth going to.
The user could then bookmark or save that restaurant in the app so they do not forget about it in the future.
Including this idea, however, Augmented Reality has quite often been regarded as a gimmick (Stage11, 2021). Whilst the idea of using your camera and something appearing on your screen is intriguing, is it practical? For my idea, for example, the user could just look up the restaurant on Google and find out the ratings and reviews in less or the same amount of time.
The potential is there, however, this is a problem that AR will need to overcome if it wants to become an integral part of our lives outside of a few video games. For this reason, I will not choose an AR project for my production piece.
References:
- Javornik, A. (2016) The mainstreaming of augmented reality: a brief history. Harvard Business Review, Internet edition. 4 October. Available online: https://hbr.org/2016/10/the-mainstreaming-of-augmented-reality-a-brief-history [Accessed 6/11/2023].
- Krambs, G. (2023) The most popular AR game now: revealing the top pick. StrawPoll, Internet edition. 10 November. Available online: https://strawpoll.com/most-popular-ar-game-now#:~:text=Pokemon%20Go&text=This%20is%20the%20most%20popular,Pokemon%20in%20the%20real%20world [Accessed 6/11/2023].
- Stage11 (2021) Can augmented reality be more than a gimmick? [Blog post]. Technology, Virtual Concerts. 26 October. Available online: https://stage11.com/can-augmented-reality-be-more-than-a-gimmick/ [Accessed 7/11/2023].