Configure Dynamic AR Content

The Dynamic AR Content feature allows the user to see different content according to a marker configuration. The configurable content are 3D objects, movies and UBIK^® objects. Currently this feature is enabled for ID Markers and Markerless scanning, meaning image tracking. Therefore, every time the user has scanned an ID marker or a picture, the corresponding object (3D object, movie or UBIK^® object) will be processed and, according to the configuration, displayed on the screen.

[edit]

Prerequisites
Tracking Setup
Action Setup
Example

Prerequisites

In order to be able to use the feature properly, a certain folder structure is required and can be found at the following link Dynamic_AR_Content_Folder_Structure.rar. Since version 2.4.4, the schema changed slightly (downwards compatible). The updated example package can be found here: Dynamic_AR_Content_Folder_Structure_244.zip The setup folder contains:

A root folder, named UBIK
The UBIK root folder contains a child folder, named ARConfig
The ARConfig contains two child folders named IDMarker and Markerless
1. IDMarker folder contains the resources and configuration files needed for scanning an ID marker
2. Markerless folder contains the resources and configuration files needed for scanning a picture
IDMarker and Markerless folder contain a res and a conf folder
1. The res folder contains all the resources to be shown, like 3D objects, videos and links to UBIK^® objects
2. The conf folder contains all the configuration files

A senseful configuration always consists of a tracking configuration (in one of the TrackingData.xml) and a corresponding action configuration (in the parallel ActionMapping.xml). So when the pattern, configured in tracking, is recognized by the camera, the configured action is triggered.

The following shows an exemplary sketch of the folder structure:

/UBIK/ARConfig/
IDMarker
conf
TrackingData_Marker.xml
Action_Mapping.xml
res
.obj
.png
.jpg
.mtl
.3g2
.md2
Markerless
conf
TrackingData_Game.xml
Action_Mapping.xml
res
.obj
.png
.jpg
.mtl
.3g2
.md2

Tracking Setup

The first step is to configure the tracking data Xml in order for UBIK^® to recognize scanned pictures and ID's. In case the marker is a picture (image), the location of the picture must also be provided. In the example it is ../res/pic_name.(png, jpeg). The ID located in the tracking data Xml should be the same as the order of the ID in the list of IDs.

The example below show the configuration of the location of the image:

The ID must be an integer number and it is not allowed to leave gaps, otherwise tracking wont work!

Action Setup

After the folder is configured, the next step is to validate the schema against an online validator. A solution can be found at Online XML Schema Validator. The schema used to validate against can be found inside the example package provided in the prerequisites section (xml_schema_xsd). Since version 2.4.4, GeometryAction derives from UBIKObjectAction. When a geometry is clicked, it will try to find the respective UBIK object and show a dialog for it.

The action mapping Xml contains different actions such as

GeometryAction (3D Object)
MovieAction
UBIKObjectAction

The following Xml shows an example configuration:

All Action tags must specify a TrackingID attribute, where ID value must exist in the corresponding tracking Xml within a <SensorCOSID> tag.

If a texture is used for a geometry, the material (*.mtl file) and the texture (picture) must all exist in the same place in order for to have the 3D object displayed properly, Only the geometry has to be specified as a resource in the Action Mapping, though.

Displaying 3D objects

3D objects can be displayed using the <GeometryAction> tag. The sub-tag <GeometryResource> defines the content and the parameters for displaying the 3D object.

UBIK-UID Tag

Available since version 2.4.4: Just like the UBIKObjectAction, this action allows the usage of a optional UBIK-UID tag, specifying the ID of a UBIK object. If it is specified, the respective object is linked to this geometry; else, it is tried to find an object with a marker classification and the geometry action's tracking ID for it's marker id value. When the user clicks on the geometry, a dialog is opened for the linked object (if found).

GeometryResource Tag

The GeometryResource contains:

Resource path: the resource path of the 3D object or video to be displayed.
Scale: if specified, the 3D object will be scaled to this size.
OffsetMillimeters: if specified, this value will be added to the position of the detected marker when displaying the 3D object. The offset can be defined along the X, Y and Z axis.
RotationDegrees. if specified, the 3D object will be rotated by this value against the detected marker.

Resource path example

pump/pump.obj

OffsetMillimeters example.

In the following rotation example the user must see the 3D object rotated around X axis and around Z axis 90 degrees. Note that the angle is in radians.

RotationDegrees example.

Displaying movies

Inside the MovieAction tag there can be two possible resources defined, a MovieResource and a PlayButton resource.

MovieResource Tag

Movies can be displayed using the <MovieResource> tag, which basically contains the same values as the GeometryResource, except the rotation vector.

PlayButton Tag

By using the <PlayButton> tag, the movie will not start immediately but there will be a geometry shown in between which basically contains the same values as the GeometryResource tag. Its purpose is to start the video only when this intermediate geometry is touched.

<MovieAction>
<MovieResource>
...
</MovieResource>
<PlayButton>
<Scale>150</Scale>
<ResourcePath>plane/plane.obj</ResourcePath>
<RotationDegrees>
<Z>3.14</Z>
</RotationDegrees>
</PlayButton>
</MovieAction>

Displaying an UBIK object dialog

The <UBIKObjectAction> allows to bring up a popup to navigate to an UBIK^® object when scanning either a picture or an ID marker. The tag must contain the tracking ID attribute and, optional, the <UBIK-UID> tag. When configuring a tag without the UBIK-UID sub-tag, the object is searched based on the value of its MarkerID property, which is compared to the value of the TrackingID attribute. If the UBIK-UID' tag exists the object is searched based on the value inside the UBIK-UID' tag.

Example

In order to use the previously configured xml's, you can use either the ID Marker activity or the Markerless activity on the UBIK^® Android Client.

ID Marker Activity

The ID markers used can be found at the following link ID Marker Example Ids 1-6.
Having in mind the setup tracking IDs, you can now scan ID markers.

For an ID that has a 3D object mapped in the action xml, the object should be displayed on the screen as shown in the next picture.
If the ID has a video object mapped in the action xml, you should see a video object on the screen, depending on the existence of the play button. Clicking the play button starts the video.
If the play button exist you should see first see the play button, and after it's clicked the mapped video. If the play button doesn't exist, a movie preview image will be shown. Clicking the image starts the video.

Markerless Activity

The markerless photos used in this example can be found at the following link Markerless example pictures.
The scenario is very similar with the ID marker activity with the only difference that instead of IDs you have to scan your tracking images.

Results

With the existent configuration from the .zip file, you should see the following picture when scanning the first ID or the first picture:

When scanning the second ID or the second picture, you should see the following:

When scanning the sixth ID, using the Markerless activity, you should see a play button and, if pressed, a movie.

Play button:

Movie:

When scanning the sixth ID using the IdMarker Activity you should see a play button also and, if pressed, a movie too.

Play button:

Movie: