The different types of Augmented Reality
Markerless, Marker-based and Location-based AR
Augmented Reality (AR) brings digital content into the real world. This content becomes visible inside the view captured by the camera of your mobile device or your smart glasses.
AR experiences usually involve a trigger that is starting the experience. These triggers help the application to decide where to place the AR content. Let’s take a look at the different types of triggers that are typically used in Augmented Reality.
Marker-Based AR
Think of a marker as being an anchor that is connecting the virtual world with the real world. A marker can be an image or a shape. Once a marker is recognized by the application, the content can be placed on top of it.
Instead of using a marker, applications can also detect surfaces and use these as a marker instead. This is great if you want to let the user decide where they are going to place the content. Any surface that is detectable by the app will work.
In Onirix this technology is called Targets
Markerless AR
These experiences are very different from what we have seen so far. When designing a Spaces experience, a detailed 3D model of a real-life location needs to be created first. Inside this 3D model, AR content can be positioned with very high precision. This approach allows for complex experiences like scene recognition without the need for a marker or very precise location tracking. This technology is called SLAM.
In Onirix this technology is called Spaces.
Location-based AR
These type of experiences tie AR content to a specific location. Location-based experiences are usually used outdoors. They provide contextual information about the environment. In order to make this work, we need to know the location of the user on a map and their viewing direction. This technology can be used to guide users through a certain area or for purposes where the location is relevant.
In Onirix this technology is called Places.
