Open Source Mobile Augmented Reality

Open source AR in the wild

• Stats– Google Code: 104– SourceForge: 37– GitHub: ~75

• Mostly sketches, ARToolkit projects, libs and utilities

• Not seeing many full clients

Factors hindering development

• Platform• Content• UI

Platform problem

Native Apps vs. Web Apps

Native Apps

Barriers to open source

• Walled gardens/silos• Fragmentation– Android • 1.5, 1.6, 2.0, 2.1,2.2• apps vary across carriers

– Apple• iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad• iPad video out, determined by application

Web Apps

Kamra

https://research.cc.gatech.edu/polaris/

Content Problem

The UI Problem“In different apps, touching a picture could

produce any of the following 5 results: – Nothing happens – Enlarging the picture – Hyperlinking to a more detailed page about that item – Flipping the image to reveal additional pictures in the

same place (metaphorically, these new pictures are "on the back side" of the original picture)

– Popping up a set of navigation choices” from Jakob Nielsen, iPad Usability: First Findings From User

Testing (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/ipad.html)

Standards are a growth medium

So many to choose from!

• HTML5• X3D• ARML• KARML• KML• GeoRSS• Wave Federation Protocol• W3C

Unintended and unexpected outcomes

Going forward

• Use existing standards, extend when necessary

• Use existing projects, extend - don’t reinvent• Iterate quickly, make lots of prototypes• Respect today’s architectures, plan for the

future architectures

Contact

Sophia Parafina, OpenGeo (opengeo.org)Email: sophia@locativemedia.orgTwitter: @sparaBlog: locativemedia.orgBlog twitter: @locatively