Utilising Augmented Reality to Create a Brand Interaction Application on Mobile Devices
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Utilising Augmented Reality to create a Brand Interaction Application on Mobile Devices by Eamon Wong, B.Sc. Dissertation Presented to the University of Dublin, Trinity College in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Computer Science University of Dublin, Trinity College December 2011 Declaration I, the undersigned, declare that this work has not previously been submitted as an exercise for a degree at this, or any other University, and that unless otherwise stated, is my own work. Eamon Wong August 31, 2011 Permission to Lend and/or Copy I, the undersigned, agree that Trinity College Library may lend or copy this thesis upon request. Eamon Wong August 31, 2011 Acknowledgments First and foremost, I'd like to thank Dr. Gerard Lacey not only for supervising this project, but also for his guidance and mentoring throughout its duration. Many thanks to Aisling Conlon for her expertise in advertising and for helping me arrange interviews around Dublin. Thank you to all those who allowed me to interview them for the purpose of this research. I'd also like to thank my family and friends for their continued support and encouragement. Eamon Wong University of Dublin, Trinity College December 2011 iv Utilising Augmented Reality to create a Brand Interaction Application on Mobile Devices Eamon Wong, M.Sc. University of Dublin, Trinity College, 2011 Supervisor: Dr. Gerard Lacey Advertising through the use of Augmented Reality (AR) has gained tremendous mo- mentum in recent years. The availability of powerful, camera equipped smart phones and tablets with wireless internet connectivity have made mobile AR applications more viable than ever. As a result, brand owners and advertising companies have been actively looking for new ways to entice a wider audience to interact with their brands using AR. This research project presents a mobile AR application built from the Junaio AR platform that allows a user with an iPhone, iPad2 or an Android device to interact with a brand's advertising campaign in various ways using AR. Interviews with several of Ireland's top advertising and marketing professionals were carried out to get an insight into how AR is viewed in the advertising industry and also to discover the voice of the customer; their key expectations and preferences regarding an AR Application. Marker based AR and various methods of interaction are analysed through the use of rapid prototyping. The final application shows how marker-less AR can be used to entice brand interaction while providing additional information about the brand, retailer locations and discounts. The application also allows the user to share their experience on Facebook. Finally feedback from an advertising and marketing professional as well as a user survey is used to evaluate the application. v Contents Acknowledgments iv Abstract v List of Tables ix List of Figures x Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Introduction . .1 1.2 Motivation and Aims . .3 1.3 Document Structure . .5 Chapter 2 State Of The Art 7 2.1 Augmented Reality on Mobile Devices . .7 2.2 Augmented Reality in Advertising . 11 2.3 AR Technology . 13 2.3.1 AR Platforms . 13 2.3.2 Marker-based vs. Markerless AR . 15 2.4 Advertising Techniques on Mobile Devices . 17 Chapter 3 Background 19 3.1 The iPad2 and iOS . 19 vi 3.1.1 Developing for the iPad 2 . 20 3.2 junaio . 22 3.2.1 junaio Architecture . 23 3.2.2 Limitations of junaio . 25 Chapter 4 User-centred Design 27 4.1 The Development Process . 27 4.2 Research Interviews . 28 4.2.1 Findings . 29 4.3 Application Design . 36 4.3.1 Concept . 37 4.3.2 Interactions . 38 Chapter 5 Implementation 39 5.1 Marker-based Prototype . 39 5.1.1 Challenges and Solutions . 40 5.1.2 Discussion . 43 5.2 AR Car Park . 44 5.2.1 Concept . 44 5.2.2 Creating the Tracking Image . 45 5.2.3 3D Model Preparation . 46 5.2.4 Server-side Scripting . 48 5.2.5 End Product . 51 Chapter 6 Evaluation 53 6.1 Professional Feedback . 53 6.1.1 Interview Results . 53 6.2 User Survey . 57 vii Chapter 7 Conclusions 59 7.1 Future Work . 61 Appendix A Questionnaire 63 Appendix B Try It Yourself 64 B.1 Get AR Car Park . 64 B.2 Tracking Image . 64 Bibliography 66 viii List of Tables 2.1 Mobile AR Platform Comparison . 15 6.1 User Survey Results . 58 ix List of Figures 1.1 iPhone camera view before and after augmentation . .1 1.2 The HUD of an aircraft . .2 1.3 Tracking image based AR . .3 1.4 Location based AR . .3 1.5 A forecast of the AR market revenue in 2014 by Juniper Research . .4 2.1 Different types of Markers . 16 3.1 The iOS Architecture . 20 3.2 Objective-C Training Apps . 21 3.3 The junaio Architecture . 23 3.4 The sequence of events upon opening a channel . 24 4.1 The Development Process . 28 4.2 Mind Map: AR Advertising . 30 4.3 Mind Map: AR Barriers/Issues . 30 4.4 Mind Map: Encouraging AR Use . 32 4.5 Mind Map: Campaign Goals . 33 5.1 Prototype: Template Markers . 40 5.2 The junaio Channel Creator . 41 5.3 Prototype: Template Markers - In-channel View . 41 5.4 Good and Back Tracking Images . 42 x 5.5 The AR Car Park Tracking Image . 46 5.6 MD2 Model before and after applying texture . 46 5.7 4 Possible textures for one model . 47 5.8 Sequence Diagram: Interactions in AR Car Park . 48 5.9 Code Snippet: Determining the request type . 49 5.10 Code Snippet: Create a model without interactions . 50 5.11 Screenshots of AR Car Park . 52 xi Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Introduction Advertising through the use of Augmented Reality (AR) has gained tremendous momen- tum in recent years. The availability of powerful, camera equipped smart phones and tablets with wireless internet connectivity have rekindled everyone's excitement in AR, a technology that has been around for over two decades. Modern smartphones can use AR to show a view of the real world blended with graphics, multimedia and various other forms of computer generated data (see Figure 1.1). As a result of this, brand owners and advertising companies around the world have been actively looking for new ways to entice a wider audience to interact with their brands using AR. Figure 1.1: iPhone camera view before and after augmentation Source: technabob [1] 1 The goal of augmented reality is to add information and meaning to a real object or place. Unlike virtual reality, augmented reality does not create a simulation of reality. Instead, it takes a real object or space as the foundation and incorporates technologies that add contextual data to deepen a person's understanding of the subject. The Educause Learning Initiative [2]. For a long time, one of the only places you could find AR outside of research labs was in the Heads-up Display (HUD) of an aircraft (see Figure 1.2). These HUD's were a breakthrough in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) because they allowed a pilot to read vital information being produced by the aircraft's computer more quickly and without having to look down at various instruments. Figure 1.2: The HUD of an aircraft AR has come a long way since then. Today it's possible to enjoy a rich and interactive AR experience almost anywhere provided you have a smartphone or a tablet computer. AR applications use contextual information received by the mobile device to blur the barrier between the real world and the digital one. Vision through the device's camera and location based information from its GPS and compass services are most popularly used in mobile AR to gain context from the real world. Vision based AR relies on detecting a marker or image and tracking it. Virtual objects are then displayed to the user in locations relative to the image being tracked. In location based AR points of interest (POIs) are given real world coordinates and their locations are displayed to the user relative to their own location and direction. Advertisers and brand owners around the world have begun 2 to exploit both of these types of AR by enabling more interaction with their existing products (see Figure 1.3) and by adding POIs for their shops, restaurants...etc. so they can be seen and located by users of the AR applications (see Figure 1.4). Figure 1.3: Tracking image based AR Figure 1.4: Location based AR Mobile AR applications present a great opportunity for advertisers and brand owners to not only boost awareness of their products but also to open up a dialog with their customers and leave them a lasting impression. Many companies around the world have gotten involved with AR for advertising and had great success and some of these cases will be introduced in the next chapter. Despite its numerous benefits, AR has not taken off in the Irish advertising scene. Apart from one example found in a campaign this summer [3], no other examples of AR and its use on mobile devices in particular have been found. Why is there a lack of AR in the Irish advertising scene? What needs to change so more brand owners will get involved with this technology? These are some of the questions investigated in this research. This project will describe the ins and outs of creating an AR application as part of an Irish advertising campaign and then showcase the benefits that such an application can bring to a brand.