Beacons Augmented Reality Mobile Application Research Report Draft 1
Miguel Guerrero
Beacons Augmented Reality Mobile Application Research Report
February 25, 2019
Introduction
Last semester, I focused on exploring the
potential of augmented reality technology by creating the foundation for an
augmented reality mobile application. The project that I created under the
supervision of Mark Skwarek, the director of NYU’s Mobile Augmented Reality
Lab, is called Beacons. To use Beacons, users open the camera on the app while
they are walking outside. As the camera is panned around the environment,
tooltips appear over buildings to indicate the establishment’s name, rating,
type and price range.
For my senior project, I endeavor to continue
the development of this application and building upon the foundations to
provide more value to users of the app. I also wish to resolve issues related to tracking because the current
tracking is not so accurate, causing tooltips for establishments to sometimes appear
in the wrong places. This occurs because the GPS data is not always entirely
accurate, especially in metropolitan areas where there are many tall buildings.
At the end of the semester, I was introduced to Mark Grob, who is the Lead
VR/AR developer at UPS Enterprise Innovations Team. I initially proposed to
include a feature on the app to dynamically mine spatial mapping data of the
world to generate a database tailored to AR GPS tracking. However, Grob believes
that the only way that the Beacons tracking technology can be further developed
is through the licensing of spatial mapping data from large data mining
companies like Google or Mapbox which have have already been collecting vast
repositories for many years.
Taking all of these considerations into
account, I have developed a hypothesis that the best way to move forward would
be a combination of collecting spatial mapping data dynamically and using the
existing licensed data. In addition to this, I have been considering developing
out a feature where users can place personalized messages in the real world and
adding more integrations to the existing data set to provide more useful data
about establishments, for example seeing how many tables are available at
restaurants. Through my research, I would like to answer the following
question: How might augmented reality and GPS technology be used conjunctively to
overlay useful information onto the real world and create an effective user
experience?
Contextual Review
“Layar-ed places: Using mobile augmented
reality to tactically reengage, reproduce, and reappropriate public space”, a
paper written by Tony Liao and Lee Humphrey, aims to demonstrate or AR can
mediate everyday interactions in urban life. Users of the app can upload
augments that change the world around them, which can later be discovered by
other users when they point their camera around the world. It was found in
their study of the app, that users were likely to create augments that changed
the meanings of the places where they were made, and added their own narratives
of place created by the users. The Layar app showed how emerging media like
augmented reality could transform practices, experiences, and relationships in
the spatial landscape.
Layar is similar to the message placing feature
that I am proposing with the Beacons augmented reality app. This kind of
feature is easy to implement on an AR app because it does not rely solely on the
device’s GPS tracking capability to position the message. When the user places
the message, the device will capture a snapshot of the 3D environment which
would be uploaded to a backend server. Once the augment message is posted to
the backend, users that use the Beacons app within a geographical radius of the
location will automatically download the tracking target and any media that the
augment message contains. When they finally point their camera at the tracking
target, the augment message will appear. By using a combination of the GPS
tracking data and spatial mapping data, Beacons would be able to support an
infinite number of messages placed in an infinite number of locations.
Practice Review
The concept of the Beacons augmented reality
app originated from its predecessor, Yelp Monocle. The original app allowed
users to point their camera around the world and browse informative tooltips
that would tell users the names of the establishments around them, with a link
to their corresponding listing on Yelp. At some point in its existence, Yelp
Monocle was abruptly taken off the App Store. Grob, believes that the app
failed in part because of its inability to filter and curate the data sets for
each individual user. Skwarek, on the other hand, says a possible reason is
that the effectiveness of the AR technology during the time the app was very
poor. While it is difficult to determine the true reason why the app was
discontinued without having access to the records of internal decisions at
Yelp, the concept of Beacons aims to improve the original proof-of-concept to potentially
eliminate the reasons why the app was initially taken down.
Method and Project
For my senior project, I would like
to experiment by building an improved tracking system that uses a combination
of collecting spatial mapping data dynamically and using existing licensed data
from existing databases. I will begin doing this by developing out a backend
system that would store this data, and researching how to take a snapshot of
the spatial mapping data, compress it and post it to the backend. I will
consult with Grob to see what options there are available for using licensed
data, and I would explore those options as well as potentially negotiate a
partnership with the source company to be able to use that data.
One of the features I may add to the
platform is the ability to save geographically-based messages in the real
world. The message posting system would link with the spatial mapping data
collection system because tracking data collected from users saving messages
would also be fed into that system. I believe that adding the message feature
will add a social aspect to the platform and allow users to create their own
narratives to redefine real world space.
I would also like to add more integrations to
the existing data set to provide more useful data about establishments. Deep
integrations, such as point-of-sale integrations, are not a scalable option for
the platform. Instead, I would look at potential API integrations with existing
crowdsourced platforms, such as Yelp and OpenTable. If there are no exposed
APIs that can be integrated with, I would like to look at the possibility of
creating a web scraping algorithm. I will work conjunctively to explore options
for gathering licensed data from data mining companies, which can be used if
the other efforts to gather data prove to be too difficult.
REFERENCES
Layar-ed
places: Using mobile augmented reality to tactically reengage, reproduce, and
reappropriate public space
Yelp
Sneaks Augmented Reality Into iPhone App
Steps Toward Accommodating Variable Position Tracking
Accuracy in a Mobile Augmented Reality System
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