Introduction
When creating an AR experience we used unity mixed with the ZapWorks website to create our project, ZapWorks ties our unity project to a tracker that you can see with the ZapWorks app. Meaning everything you put in the unity scene can be seen in the real world using a tracker.
Project
We were tasked in creating two projects for ZapWorks, a static object and an object with animation applied on it. I decided to change the tracking image and made the objects Shrek, and the animation is of Shrek dancing.
I feel like this would be a good option to create AR things with as it is intuitive and easy to learn but i feel like i could add a lot more and have the objects react with the camera such as looking at the camera. If i were to go with this option i would probably make something similar to a marble machine which is satisfying to look at. I would need to make sure i make the project in the correct orientation to where you would typically look at it from, such as if it’s on the wall or on the floor or ceiling.
I created Dancing Shrek by importing the Shrek model to Mixamo and adding a rig and animations to the Shrek model, from here i exported it to Unity and put to the right scale and rotation and made sure the animations were working properly and looped. I then built the project and sent it to Zapworks to allow you to see the project using a trigger code.
What would i do with this Medium (AR Technology)
A few ideas that i would probably use this for would be:
A game where it uses the layout of your house using the camera to make a miniature city builder that exists in your house. So you can see a city being built along your walls and ceiling. So at some point you can roam all along your home and see a bunch of small buildings so you can see the progress of your little builders.
Another idea would to scan your home again and using that it uses AI to play a game of hide and seek and you have to run away from them, similar to FNAF AR.
In a different field it could probably be developed for engineering applications to help engineers figure out how to assemble parts without needing to figure it out from a manual.
There are probably a lot of ideas that i haven’t thought of yet but i goes to show to general use that you could use AR (Augmented reality) for.
User Experience
With the use of AR you have to make sure the user is always aware of their surroundings, this is because if you have an outdoors style AR game, and you distract the user it could lead to accidents with cars due to them not noticing what is happening to their surroundings, especially younger children.
You also need to ensure that the video feed isn’t delayed between the project and your user as that can cause confusion and motion sickness. If that happens you risk their safety and they also probably not come back to the app.