United 3D Labs: Augmented reality with 3D tracking

The 20th Azerbaijan International Exhibition and Conference “Telecommunications and information technologies” took place in Baku Expo Center on December 2-5. Polymedia company, the leader in the Russian market of information display systems, took an active part in it. For the company stand United 3D Labs has developed an augmented reality application for iPad.

The application is quite unusual for the Russian market of computer graphics as it uses 3D tracking technology; so in this case the marker of augmented reality is not a flat image but a real three-dimensional object.

There was a real 60 cm high 3D model of an oil platform (which was made on a 3D printer) on the podium. First, the 3D model was digitized with the help of special software, and then a 3D marker was created. Next step, the marker was installed into the iPad application. That means that using the 3D marker, a tablet with an augmented reality program installed can accurately determine the user’s angle of view. No two-dimensional markers are required!

However, no need for any conventional markers is not even the most important advantage. The greatest breakthrough here is that now the augmented reality system can determine the angle from which the viewer examines the oil platform. All the space around the 3D model was divided into 8 sectors; in each of them we created its own virtual three-dimensional scene. Moving around the model of the oil platform, the viewer can see shifting animated 3D scenes: a helicopter flying around the tower or a ship sailing up; the history of oil production in Azerbaijan or the current state of the industry; the purpose of the individual elements of the platform and their size.

Both adults and children were captivated as the space around the 3D model of the platform in augmented reality came to life right in front of them.

The demonstration of 3D tracking system at the stand of Polymedia company was not only for the entertainment of visitors. Augmented reality technology opens up broad prospects for use in production, education, infotainment. The use of real physical objects as markers together with the ability to install software on tablets, which are lightweight and convenient, provide unique opportunities to create instructions, demonstrations of dynamic processes, development of training manuals. Polymedia company, a leading system integrator in the field of Russian education, could not miss the opportunity to use such a promising technology.