Enterprise Augmented Reality Projects

Build real-world, large-scale AR solutions for various industries

Jorge R. López Benito, Enara Artetxe González

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781789803150
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Entreprise Applications
• Index: Computer Science

Design end-to-end AR solutions for domains such as marketing, retail, manufacturing, tourism, automation, and training

Key Features

• Use leading AR development frameworks such as ARCore, ARKit, and Vuforia across key industries
• Identify the market potential of AR for designing visual solutions in different business sectors
• Build multi-platform AR projects for various platforms such as Unity, iOS, and Android

Book Description

Augmented reality (AR) is expanding its scope from just being used in mobile and game applications to enterprise. Different industries are using AR to enhance assembly line visualization, guide operators performing difficult tasks, attract more customers, and even improve training techniques. In this book, you'll gain comprehensive insights into different aspects of developing AR-based apps for six different enterprise sectors, focusing on market needs and choosing the most suitable tool in each case.

You'll delve into the basics of Unity and get familiar with Unity assets, materials, and resources, which will help you build a strong foundation for working on the different AR projects covered in the book. You'll build real-world projects for various industries such as marketing, retail, and automation in a step-by-step manner. This will give you hands-on experience in developing your own industrial AR apps. While building the projects, you'll explore various AR frameworks used in the enterprise environment such as Vuforia, EasyAR, ARCore, and ARKit, and understand how they can be used by themselves or integrated into the Unity 3D engine to create AR markers, 3D models, and components of an AR app.

By the end of this book, you'll be well versed in using different commercial AR frameworks as well as Unity for building robust AR projects.

What you will learn

• Understand the basics of Unity application development and C# scripting
• Learn how to use Android Studio along with ARCore and Sceneform to build AR prototypes for Android devices
• Enable AR experiences on the web with ARCore and WebAR
• Explore emerging AR authoring tools such as Augmented Class! for education
• Understand the differences and similarities between handheld and head-mounted display (HMD) environments and how to build an app for each target
• Become well versed in using Xcode with ARKit and SceneKit to develop AR portals for iOS devices

Who this book is for

This book is for anyone interested in emerging and interactive technologies or looking to build AR applications for any domain. Although, no prior augmented reality experience is required, having some skills in object-oriented programming (OOP) will be helpful.

AR for Automation with Vuforia and AR Glasses

In this chapter, we will go deeper into Vuforia, the SDK we introduced previously in Chapter 6, AR for Retail with Vuforia. You will learn how to use the framework along with AR glasses, more specifically, the Epson Moverio BT-350 model, and you will learn how to use the Vuforia image recognition features to create an app to guide operators, step by step, in industrial works, and how to modify a scene so that you can integrate it into your AR glasses.

It's important to note that to complete this chapter, you will need to have the AR glasses to build upon them. Although we have structured the content so that you can follow most of the process using a mobile Android device, you will only be able to see the final result, the differences in the mobile device view, and the possibilities that the AR see-through devices offer if you can launch the project on the real glasses.

This chapter has three main goals: first of all, to acquire a fuller understanding of how Vuforia works so that you can extend and improve the current example beyond the scope of this book. The second goal is to understand the possibilities AR offers in the industrial field and, specifically, in automation. You will see that AR is not only a visually attractive technology but that it can guide operators in their work, reducing training time and possible errors during operations. The idea is to provide you with the necessary skills to reproduce and adapt the current project to your needs. The final goal is to introduce an AR headset, such as the Epson Moverio AR glasses, to explain how they work and to easily integrate Vuforia with them.

Using AR glasses instead of tablets can be a valuable asset in the industrial field as it allows operators to have both hands free while they are working. The following image shows a pair of AR glasses:

The Epson Moverio BT-350 AR glasses

In this chapter, we will be covering the following topics:

• Using AR in automation
• Exploring Vuforia
• Developing image-based AR in Vuforia
• Creating an industrial guide for AR glasses

Technical requirements

The technical requirements for this chapter are as follows:

• A Unity 3D supporting computer (see the latest requirements here: https://unity3d.com/es/unity/system-requirements). This chapter's example project has been developed on a Windows 10 x64 computer.
• Unity 3D (2019.1.2f1 in this book).
• Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2017 (included in the Unity installation).
• The latest version of Vuforia included with Unity 3D (8.3.8 in this book).
• Epson Moverio BT-350 AR glasses.

The resources and code files for this chapter can be found here: https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Enterprise-Augmented-Reality-Projects/tree/master/Chapter07.

Other AR glasses (from Moverio and other companies) might work with this example. However, some points have to be taken into account, for example, their operating system must be Android 4.1 or above (required by Unity 3D v2019).

Let's get started with AR in automation.

Using AR in automation

The arrival of the fourth industrial revolution, also called industry 4.0, has boosted the use of AR in industrial environments. Industry 4.0 revolves around digitalization and interconnectivity, and technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data Analytics (BDA), Additive Manufacturing (AM), Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have become the base of this industrial revolution.

AR is the natural interface and connection to IoT and big data. It allows workers to visualize and interact with the data coming from the and sensors of a factory in an easy and attractive way, either using mobile devices or AR headsets.

AR use in automation can go from the facial recognition of an employee to getting access to a concrete machine, to real-time on-site surveillance of the production process or remote access to and control of the system through AR glasses.

Introducing the scenario and process

For this project, we will be creating a step-by-step guide that can be used in production, maintenance, and training. Users performing a task will receive guidance on how to do it correctly, as well as have access to useful information such as blueprin...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright and Credits
• Dedication
• About Packt
• Contributors
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Introduction to AR and How It Fits the Enterprise
• Introduction to Unity for AR Development
• AR for Manufacturing with ARCore
• AR for Training with WebAR and Augmented Class!
• AR for Marketing with EasyAR
• AR for Retail with Vuforia
• AR for Automation with Vuforia and AR Glasses
• AR for Tourism with ARKit
• Other Books You May Enjoy