AR Landscape/Browsers
Comparison Taget
A "AR(Augmented Reality) browser(user agent)" is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources via Augmented Reality Interface. Mobile AR browser(user agent) have these features :
- Pulling in and managing data from both in-app sources and third party data sets.
- Linking to web services or phone functions such as voice communications, text or email
- Rendering 2-D and 3-D objects
- Interfacing with the smartphone's camera for displaying output
- Browsing information resources that ties the sensor data with digital contents
The market-leading Mobile AR user agents that are included in the survey are listed below. The Mobile AR user agents were subjectively chosen because of their perceived prevalence in the market place. This survey was conducted independently of any vendor and no vendor explicitly requested they be included in the survey.
No | Mobile AR User Agent | Vendor | HQ Location | Homepage | Support Platform |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Argon (KHARMA) | Georgia Tech | USA | https://research.cc.gatech.edu/polaris/ | iPhone |
2 | Acrossair | Acrossair | UK | http://www.acrossair.com/ | iPhone |
3 | Google Goggles | Google Inc. | USA | http://www.google.com/mobile/goggles | iPhone, Android |
4 | InstantReality | FraunhoferIGD | Germany | http://www.instantreality.org/ | ?? |
5 | Junaio | metaio GmbH | Germany | http://www.junaio.com/ | iPhone, Android |
6 | Kooaba | Kooaba | Switzerland | http://www.kooaba.com/ | iPhone |
7 | Layar | Layar B.V. | Netherlands | http://www.layar.com | iPhone, Android, Symbian, Bada |
8 | LibreGeoSocial | Spain | http://www.libregeosocial.org/ | Android | |
9 | mixare | Italy | http://www.mixare.org | Android, iPhone | |
10 | Ovjet | Kiwiple Inc. | Korea | http://ovjet.com/ | iPhone, Android |
11 | Point and Find | Nokia | Finland | http://pointandfind.nokia.com/main_publisher | Symbian |
12 | ScanSearch | OlaWorks | Korea | http://www.scansearch.com/ | iPhone, Andorid |
13 | Sekai Camera | Tonchidot Corp. | Japan | http://sekaicamera.com/ | iPhone, Android |
14 | Wikitude | Mobilizy | Austria | http://www.wikitude.org/ | iPhone, Android |
Last Edit: 20110330155345
Overall features
This part of the table provides the brief summary of overall features of Mobile AR browsers.
- Data Representation
- How to represent the AR Contents and AR Data.
- Using POI
- Is it using POI
- AR content type
- The AR content type that supported by the widget user agent (2d, 3D, 3D-anim, ….)
- SDK support
- Is it provide to SDK(Software Development Kit) for developer
- Interface Type
- Supported User Interface Type
- 3rd party channeling
- How to support 3rd party and content channeling ?
- User Interaction
- What kind of User Interaction method is available ?
- Air tagging support
- How to support Air tagging(or user commenting) function ?
- I18N support
- How to support Internationalization (I18N) and L11N (Localization) feature ?
- Device Capability
- What Hardware capabilities (GPS, camera, accelerometer, gyro sensor… ) used
Mobile AR User Agent | Data Representation | Using POI | AR content type | SDK support | Interface Type | 3rd party channeling | User Interaction | Air tagging support | I18N support | Device capability |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Argon (KHARMA) | KML plus HTML | |||||||||
Acrossair | Proprietary/unknown | |||||||||
Google Goggles | Proprietary/unknown | |||||||||
InstantReality | unknown | |||||||||
Junaio | XML-based | |||||||||
Kooaba | REST API for image lookup, returns XML | |||||||||
Layar | JSON | |||||||||
LibreGeoSocial | unknown | |||||||||
mixare | JSON | |||||||||
Ovjet | Proprietary, visual search | |||||||||
Point and Find | Proprietary, ?? | |||||||||
ScanSearch | visual search and geo. | |||||||||
Sekai Camera | Social AR, geo. JSON. | |||||||||
Wikitude | ARML, based on KML (XML). |
Last Edit: 20110330155345
Data Representation
Support Specifications
Mobile AR User Agent |
---|
Argon (KHARMA) |
Acrossair |
Google Goggles |
InstantReality |
Junaio |
Kooaba |
Layar |
LibreGeoSocial |
mixare |
Ovjet |
Point and Find |
ScanSearch |
Sekai Camera |
Wikitude |
Last Edit: 20110330155345
Registration and Augmentation
This section describes the differences in registration and augmentation.
This table indicates the methods available for aligning a virtual object with a 3 dimensional co-ordinate in the reality view. The tracking methods evaluated in the table rely either on GPS and location sensors (less accurate) or computer vision (more accurate) or both.
- Marker based
- How to support the marker based tracking?
- Yes: built-in support for optical tracking using markers such as 2d matrix.
- Src: source code available to support optical tracking using markers.
- No: does not support optical tracking with markers.
- Marker less
- How to support the marker less tracking?
- Yes: built-in support for optical tracking using natural feature detection and/or image recognition.
- Src: source code available to support for optical tracking using natural feature detection and/or image recognition.
- No: does not support tracking with feature detection or image recognition.
- Location based
- Is this support the Location based tracking and registration?
- Yes: supports location based tracking using GPS, digital compass and accelerometer.
- No: does not support location based tracking or limited support
- 3D object registration
- Is this support to 3D object registration ?
- Yes: supports 3D object registration using 3D object model
- No: does not support 3D object rendering and registration
- Tracking method
- What kind of additional Tracking method is used?
Mobile AR User Agent | Marker based | Marker less | Location based | 3D object registration | Tracking method |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Argon (KHARMA) | |||||
Acrossair | |||||
Google Goggles | |||||
InstantReality | |||||
Junaio | |||||
Kooaba | |||||
Layar | |||||
LibreGeoSocial | |||||
mixare | |||||
Ovjet | |||||
Point and Find | |||||
ScanSearch | |||||
Sekai Camera | |||||
Wikitude Worlds |
Last Edit: 20110330155345
Authoring
This section describes the differences in authoring
- Add single POI
- If user wants to add a new POI, AR Agent allows adding single POI?
- Yes: allow to add a new POI
- No: does not allow adding POI
- Add List of POI
- If user wants to add List of POI, AR Agent provide method for adding List of POI
- Yes: provide method for adding List of POI
- No: does not allow
- Add Custom Content
- If user wants to add custom content, AR Agent allows it?
- Yes: allow to add custom content
- No: does not allow
- Authentication
- What kind of authentication methods is used?
- Authoring Tool
- Provide the authoring tool?
- Document URL for developer
- Where user can find document for authoring?
Mobile AR User Agent | Add single POI | Add List of POI | Add Custom Content | Authentication | Document URL |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Argon (KHARMA) | |||||
Acrossair | |||||
Google Goggles | |||||
InstantReality | |||||
Junaio | |||||
Kooaba | |||||
Layar | |||||
LibreGeoSocial | |||||
mixare | |||||
Ovjet | |||||
Point and Find | |||||
ScanSearch | |||||
Sekai Camera | |||||
Wikitude Worlds | http://www.wikitude.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/docaddcontent.pdf http://www.wikitude.me/ |
Last Edit: 20110330155345
Interface and Accessibility
This section describes the differences in user interface and accessibility
- Offline support
- Support that use in offline mode?
- Online only: application requires a network connection at all time to work properly.
- Offline: application also works offline – data is updated by obtaining a new version of the application
- Cachble [cacheable layer]: Channels or layers can be cached while online.
- Accessibility considerations
- Support Accessibility?
- Filtering
- What kind of filtering methods is provided?
Mobile AR User Agent | Offline support | Accessibility considerations | filtering |
---|---|---|---|
Argon (KHARMA) | |||
Acrossair | |||
Google Goggles | |||
InstantReality | |||
Junaio | |||
Kooaba | |||
Layar | |||
LibreGeoSocial | |||
mixare | |||
Ovjet | |||
Point and Find | |||
ScanSearch | |||
Sekai Camera | |||
Wikitude Worlds |
3rd party channeling
This section defines ...
- Paid contents
- Support paid contents?
- Yes:
- No:
- Publisher API
- How offer for developers to publish their own content so that users can search and interact with the content in the browser application.
- Open key: Platform provides an API that allows developers to publish their own data. For open keys there is no registration fee for developers and no practical limit on the users’ access to the published content. This also includes platforms that allow developers to publish their content without any key or registration at all.
- Crowd [crowd sourced]: Crowd sourced content is published by regular users using facilities available in the browser itself, Typically, images, audio clips and text as well as a predefined gallery of 3d objects are available for crowd sourced content publishing. This has the disadvantage the developer has to physically visit the place where the content is tagged, but enables non-technical people to get involved in creating content.
- Restr[icted key]: A publishing API is available but some kind of fee or restriction on use is applied by the platform provider.
- Bndle [Bundled]: Content is bundled into the app itself. This assumes developer has access to the browser source code and can therefore create and publish their own app for download. While this has the disadvantage of cached data becoming stale if the user does not regularly update the app, the ability to search for POI offline is an advantage for some use cases where 3G connectivity is unavailable or prohibitively expensive.
- URL
- Where content provider can find document for 3rd party channeling?
Mobile AR User Agent | Paid contents | Publisher API | URL |
---|---|---|---|
Argon (KHARMA) | |||
Acrossair | |||
Google Goggles | |||
InstantReality | |||
Junaio | |||
Kooaba | |||
Layar | |||
LibreGeoSocial | |||
mixare | |||
Ovjet | |||
Point and Find | |||
ScanSearch | |||
Sekai Camera | |||
Wikitude Worlds |
Last Edit: 20110330155345
3D object rendering
This section defines the differences in 3D object processing.
User Interaction and Air tagging
This section defines how can interact with POIs(or user’s comments/Air Tag).
-- Layar's Activity types for POI actions : http://layar.pbworks.com/w/page/30763878/Activity-types-for-POI-actions
I18N and L11N
This section describes the internationalization of AR systems. .
Sensors and Device Capabilities
This section defines the differences in using the sensing information.
- Multi-touch gesture
- Using Multi-touch gesture
- Yes:
- No:
- Existing/Future standards:
- Web Events WG's Touch Events
- Camera image/video APIs
- Accessing single-image or video stream from cameras (including front and back), e.g. for compositing or QR code scans. See also media capture DAP API.
- Yes:
- No:
- Existing/Future standards:
- GPS(Global Positioning System) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS
- Using GPS-senor
- Yes:
- No:
- Existing/Future standards:
- WPS(Wi-Fi Positioning System) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_Positioning_System
- Using WPS
- Yes:
- No:
- Existing/Future standards:
- NFC(Near-Field Communication) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_Field_Communication
- Using NFC reader/tag
- Yes:
- No:
- Existing/Future standards:
- ??
- Accelerometer - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerometer
- Using Accelerometer sensor
- Yes:
- No:
- Existing/Future standards:
- Gyroscope (motion sensor)- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyroscope
- Using Gyroscope sensor
- Yes:
- No:
- No:
- Existing/Future standards:
- Magnetometer(the digital compass) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetometer
- Using Magnetometer sensor
- Yes:
- No:
- Existing/Future standards:
- Bluetooth - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth
- Using Bluetooth interface
- Yes:
- No:
- Existing/Future standards:
- ??
- Microphone or Sound/voice Input
- Using MIC or Sound/Voice input
- Yes:
- No:
- Existing/Future standards:
- external HMD(Head Mounted Display)
- support connecting between the mobile device and the external HMD device
- Yes:
- No:
- Existing/Future standards:
- ??
References
[8] Ben Butchart, “Augmented Reality for Smartphones”, UKOLN, JISC Observatory report, 2011.3.1
[9] Rose, S. Potter, D. Newcombe, M. November 2011, “A Review of available Augmented Reality packages and evaluation of their potential use in an educational context”, University of Exeter. http://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/augmentedreality/files/2010/11/Augmented-Realityfinal.pdf
[10] George Papagiannakis, Gurminder Singh, Nadia M. Thalmann, 2008, “A survey of mobile and wireless technologies for augmented reality systems2, in Comput. Animat. Virtual Worlds: http://www.miralab.unige.ch/repository/papers/486.pdf , Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 3-22.
[11] Augmented Planet Browsers Section, http://www.augmentedplanet.com/category/mobile/ar-browsers/
[12] Standards for Web Applications on Mobile: February 2011 current state and roadmap, http://www.w3.org/2011/02/mobile-web-app-state.html