CASE : AR App
CLIENT : Copenhagen This Way
YEAR : 2019
TEAM : 3 Persons
The Company
Copenhagen This Way” (CTW) is a group of guides who offer walking tours around Copenhagen to show tourists the city’s highlights.
The CTW guides share interesting stories about the city’s history and culture during the tours.
To complement these tours, my internship aimed to develop an augmented reality (AR) app.
We worked with 3 persons on this project, where I was responsible for developing the code alongside a classmate. I also created the video concept and edited the video clips for the app.
Developing the Idea
We started with the idea of mixing images and projecting them on reality, but we discovered later that we could make a kind of “portal to another time”, in this way we mixed in a Unity 3D model, photos (channel alpha) and original videos.
Ghosts of the city
We made Gif images as a way to show, what the tourists could see through the App.
Target Group & Personas
Branding
Original Logo
Logo for AR Experience
paper Prototype
Vuforia
Vuforia is an Augmented Reality (AR) platform that enables developers to create AR experiences using various tools and features. When working with image targets in Vuforia, here’s how it generally functions:
- Image Recognition: Vuforia employs computer vision technology to recognize and track images in real-time. An “image target” is a specific image uploaded to the Vuforia Target Manager. This image serves as a trigger for AR content. Vuforia analyzes the features and patterns in the image to create a unique fingerprint that it uses for recognition.
- Target Database Creation: Developers create a target database using the Vuforia Target Manager by uploading images they want to use as triggers for AR experiences. The database stores information about these images, allowing the Vuforia SDK (Software Development Kit) to recognize them when seen through a device’s camera.
- App Integration: When developing an AR application, developers integrate the Vuforia SDK into their app. The SDK provides functionalities for accessing the device’s camera, processing video feed, and recognizing the predefined image targets.
- Recognition and Tracking: Once the app is running and the camera detects an image matching one in the target database, Vuforia recognizes and tracks that image in real-time. It identifies the position, orientation, and relative distance of the image target in the camera’s field of view.
- Overlaying AR Content: Once the image target is recognized and tracked, the developer can specify what kind of AR content (3D models, videos, animations, etc.) should be overlaid on top of the image in the app. This content appears as if it’s interacting with or anchored to the recognized image target.
- User Interaction: Users can interact with the overlaid AR content as programmed by the developer. This might involve tapping, swiping, or other gestures to trigger specific actions or behaviors in the AR experience.
Working in unity
The image trigger the AR
Vuforia in unity
Vuforia simplifies the process of creating AR applications by providing tools for image recognition, tracking, and overlaying digital content onto real-world objects or images, offering users an immersive and interactive experience. In this case, the digital content was pictures and videos from Copenhagen from the 40s, creating the illusion of a portal to another time inside the gate frame.
Video concept
This video shows the concept developed and how the App will complement the work of the guides.
