Robots and Physical Computing: Free Web based Augmented Reality (AR)

This post is part of the materials for a session on Augmented Reality presenting at the 2019 SolSTICE eLearning and CLT Conference 5-6th June 2019 Edge Hill University https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/solstice/files/2019/05/2019-Book-of-Abstracts.pdf and the #MergedFutures Event on 14th June 2019.

1. Introduction

So if we go to

https://thimbleprojects.org/scottturneruon/692403

Using the markers above with this url running on your device (with a camera enabled) it should add two new objects over the markers. you will need a copy of these images and printed them out. If you have it I would suggest running it in Firefox.

2. Getting Started

The guide for all this is https://aframe.io/blog/arjs/, with this you have pretty much everything you need.

To start your own go to https://glitch.com/ -> new project ->Hello World project

In the index.html deleted everything in there and replace it with

Should have a white box over the Hiro marker when the web camera/phone/tablet is shown the markers.

The code not in bold below just sets it up - to play with it we don’t need to worry about what it does - we can just use it. The bit in bold is the bit initially we change or add to – in this case it puts a default white box over the marker.

It can be seen at https://decisive-cookie.glitch.me

3. Playing with other objects

Now if we replace

With

We get a blue ball in place of the box

Now for some fun

http://www.pngall.com/bee-png/download/84 is a bee image – download it

Go back to Glitch, and if we go to assets we can add the image. Open up the folder that has the downloaded image and drag it into the asset window.

When it stops downloading and shows the image, click on the image to get the new web address we are going to need that next. so take a copy of it.

If we replace

With the following by just adding in src="https://cdn.glitch.com/04b86bba-0978-4bf4-b3a7-2ece72336f90%2FBee-PNG.png" as below

We get a blue ball with a bee stretched over it. But it doesn’t look that great if we remove the color=”blue” we see the bee stuck at the bottom of the ball still but the colours are back.

Now if we replace

With commands to rotate the sphere

We get a rotating sphere with the image on it.

This can be found at https://simplistic-wakeboard.glitch.me and works with the Hiro marker

If you want to find out how I felt about presenting go to https://dandy-custard.glitch.me/

Now let's try a GIF

https://giphy.com/gifs/ar-vr-uon-dWsKM0qQeY9DhSUslT/media

Download the GIF and then copy (drag and drop) into the asset folder of your project get the web address and put into src=”” in place of the one that is there already

An example can be found at https://root-reply.glitch.me/ and works with the Hiro marker.

4. Issues and Thoughts

Make sure all the markers have white space surrounding them.

Video is fun

It is browser dependent on Firefox https://thimbleprojects.org/scottturneruon/692403 would place a video on Chrome and so others it is a static image.
There are ways around it https://cloudy-nation.glitch.me a play button is added but it does involve more code https://glitch.com/~cloudy-nationWallace https://www.northampton.ac.uk/directories/people/roy-wallace/

The QR code approach doesn’t always work with all phones and tablets.

If I am honest, the technology is cool and useful for educational use, but I not sure where it all can go. The question is what can others come up with to use it, I would love to hear about it.

Free Educational Augmented Reality from Scott Turner