Augmented Reality’s Origins
To understand today’s types of augmented reality (AR), you need to first understand where this technology came from. AR has existed in laboratory settings since the 1960s, but made impressive technical and cultural progress in the last few years.
AR made a leap into public spaces a few decades ago, when it was featured in rides at amusement parks or in 4D movie theaters that use water, air, sound, lights, or movement to create immersion.
But the real explosion of AR in recent years (and why everyone is talking about it) is because of the processing power in today’s smart devices. This fact, plus the mobility of smartphones, has untethered AR and enabled augmented experiences to appear in exciting new spaces.
AR can enhance a simple shopping experience with augmented coupons or product previews. It can also improve accuracy in complex situations, like overlaying surgical directions on a patient’s body as a guide through a life-saving procedure.
People sometimes confuse augmented reality with virtual reality (VR). While they do share pieces of development history, the two aren’t the same. Virtual reality creates immersion in an artificial environment, but augmented reality increases or heightens an experience in the real world by layering additional information atop it. Simply put: VR seeks to replace a world whereas AR wants to add to it instead.
The diverse uses for AR, from the consumer to the commercial level, makes it appealing for just about any industry. VR and AR technology hit a high point with investments estimated at $3 billion in 2017.
The Big Two: Categorizing Types of Augmented Reality
There are many ways to go about augmenting the world around us, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. To make things easier, it’s best to group current day types of AR into two categories: marker-based or markerless.
Marker-based AR
Markers are distinct patterns that cameras can easily recognize and process. Markers are visually unique from the environment around them. Software, usually in the form of an app, enables users to scan markers from their device using its camera feed.
Scanning a marker triggers an augmented experience, whether it be an object, text, or animation, to appear on the device. Tracking plays an important part in this type of AR, meaning that either the marker or camera can be moved slightly without distorting or stopping the augmented effects.
See an example of marker-based AR in the MABU (InnovatAR’s parent company) Christmas Card, which was made using the Layar app.
Marker-based AR has rapidly grown in popularity because of its decreasing costs of entry and the ubiquity of smartphones and other smart devices. These electronics can nowadays easily handle the processing requirements for these use cases.
However, marker-based AR is almost exclusively handled through mobile apps. This means that users must first download software before engaging with augmented content. So unfortunately, most marker-based experiences are not instantaneous nor spontaneous.
Markerless AR
This style of AR is more versatile than marker-based AR; it does not need an image cue to deploy. Instead, it relies on positional information gathered from a device’s camera, GPS, digital compass and accelerometer.
These data inputs build an understanding of 3D space in a process known as Simultaneous Localization and Mapping – or SLAM for short. SLAM places content directly into your view of the world and ‘sticks’ it to the environment. The programming behind markerless AR is more complicated but delivers pretty stunning results.
The video below provides a simple example of what markerless AR can look like.
SLAM algorithms bring augmentation to new spaces, though mostly limited to flat surfaces. While this sounds lackluster, it should be mentioned that SLAM is still in its very early years of development and usage in AR applications.
Though more complex, markerless is proving to be a rising choice for high-end AR developers. Apple’s ARKit and Google’s ARCore are software development kits released in recent years that push the scope of markerless AR.
Check out the video below on the Apple Measure app (developed in the ARKit). Or even better, get it on your device to get a feel for marker-less AR!
Variations of Markerless AR
Location-based AR
While it uses many of the same sensors (GPS, compass, accelerometer) as markerless AR, location-based AR ties augmentation to a specific place. Virtual objects and information are mapped specific spots locations and then displayed when a user’s device data matches that location. Its applications are widespread. The AR sensation Pokémon GO uses it and so does Blippar’s Indoor Visual Positioning tool, seen below.
Projection-based AR
Advanced projectors can create immersive light forms or layer new information onto flat surfaces. Projection-based AR does not involve user-operated tech. Instead, it delivers a truly futuristic feeling experience. Users guide through their manual inputs and the projector(s) respond through changing the light emitted. Projector-based AR works for practical purpose and to entertain, as the video below shows.
