A tile based colour picture with hidden QR code for augmented reality and beyond

Abstract

Most existing Augmented Reality (AR) applications use either template (picture) markers or bar-code markers to overlay computer-generated graphics on the real world surfaces. The use of template markers is computationally expensive and unreliable. On the other hand, bar-code markers display only black and white blocks; thus, they look uninteresting and uninformative. In this short paper, we describe a new way to optically hide a QR code inside a tile based colour picture. Each AR marker is built from hundreds of small tiles (just like tiling a bathroom), and the unique gaps between the tiles are used to determine the elements of the hidden QR Code. This novel type of AR marker presents not only a realistic-looking colour picture but also contains self-Correcting information (stored in QR code). In this article, we demonstrate that this tile based colour picture with hidden QR code is relatively robust under various conditions and scaling. We believe many nowadays' AR challenges could be solved with this type of marker. AR-enabled medias could then be easily generated. For instance, it would be capable of storing and displaying virtual figures of an entire book or magazine. Thus, it provides a promising AR approach to be used in many different AR applications; and beyond, it may even replace the barcodes and QR Codes in some cases.