A Practical Framework for the Development of Augmented Reality Applications by using ArUco Markers

Abstract

The Augmented Reality (AR) is an expanding field of the Computer Graphics (CG) that merges items of the real-world environment (e.g., places, objects) with digital information (e.g., multimedia files, virtual objects) to provide users with an enhanced interactive multi-sensorial experience of the real-world that surrounding them. Currently, a wide range of devices is used to vehicular AR systems. Common devices (e.g., cameras equipped on smartphones) enable users to receive multimedia information about target objects (non-immersive AR). Advanced devices (e.g., virtual windscreens) provide users with a set of virtual information about points of interest (POIs) or places (semi-immersive AR). Finally, an ever-increasing number of new devices (e.g., HeadMounted Display, HMD) support users to interact with mixed reality environments (immersive AR). This paper presents a practical framework for the development of non-immersive augmented reality applications through which target objects are enriched with multimedia information. On each target object is applied a different ArUco marker. When a specific application hosted inside a device recognizes, via camera, one of these markers, then the related multimedia information are loaded and added to the target object. The paper also reports a complete case study together with some considerations on the framework and future work.