Ancient Pagodas AR Sightseeing - KIT724 AR Assignment3 Report

Introduction

Want a closer look into the ancient architectures when go travelling? Rather than getting a plain booklet at the visitor centre, you can interactively know the historical information of the architectures with wonderful classical music around you by using my Augmented Reality Sightseeing tool.

Description of Application

This is an Augmented Reality application aiming at serving travellers who want to know more historical information about some ancient architectures It displays a 3D model of the target architecture with a range of interesting interactions and can be running on android phones or tablets.

Now, in addition to the enjoyment during the journey, more and more tourists pay more attention to the exploration of the historical significance and construction methods of ancient buildings. In the past, it is difficult to provide tourists with a more intuitive feeling by using traditional paper guidebooks or understanding information through notice boards of scenic spots. And when they need a detailed understanding of a certain part of the building, the traditional human interface is difficult to provide such a service. The design of this software can solve this problem and help tourists have a deeper understanding of the history and culture behind the attractions they visit when traveling.

Augmented Reality is implemented in this application.  In the requirements of interface solution, AR can fulfill two important points in this application: unique user experience and visualize the dynamics of sensor data over time and space. Both requirements should contribute to the service that this application provides for users who are eager to enjoy more informational and interactive experience.

Interaction Design

In operational level of this application, there are a list of interactions (some may not be implemented in the actual app) are needed to provide a wonderful user experience. More specifically, users can obtain more information in detail about the historical sites without losing the joy of tourism.

• Background Soundtrack. Upon successfully detecting the target, a background sound will play to tell the user model is built, at the same time, it can also make users more immersed in the atmosphere of the typical history and culture.
• Show-information button. General information should be presented with simple and intuitive interaction. Some simple operations can meet the needs of users and present user the information they need. And a hide function can hide the information for user as well.
• Point and expand. A lot of Chinese ancient architecture takes use of wooden material and traditional constructing techniques. Users shouldn’t miss out this most important part. User can simply point or target a position of the architecture then the model will zoom out and show the details of the architecture and some useful text will float on the scene.

Story Board

Here a story board will explain the user case of this application and the interactions.

Technical Development

Interface Technology Specifics

The IDE of this application is Unity, which is a powerful cross-platform game engine to support a variety of application development (Sinicki 2021). The scripts of application are written in .NET C#. And Vuforia platform is imported as the database package and the application interface technology to connect the real architecture with Augmented Reality.

Available Interactions Engagement

• Background Soundtrack. When the target architecture is detected, no matter it is picture or the real item, a classical music will play. The music will loop until the target is untracked in the camera.
• Show-information button. After successfully presenting the 3D model of the architecture, a green button will show in the scene. User can move hand over the button for a short moment and a text of architecture information will float in the scene. User can move away hand, but the text won't disappear until user move have over the button again.
• Image Swipe. This interaction can work when the target is a group of pictures. User can swipe between the pictures and different models will be displayed in the scene along with different soundtrack to match the architectures.

Description of 3D Models

Reference

Sinicki, A 2021, What is Unity? Everything you need to know, Android Authority, viewed 17 September 2022, <https://www.androidauthority.com/what-is-unity-1131558/>.

Picture of Taibei 228 Peace Memorial Park Pagoda, <https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/taiwanese-temple-pagoda-gm1213780450-352896364>.

Model of Taibei 228 Peace Memorial Park Pagoda, <https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/chinese-pagoda-in-taipei-taiwan-520c3273706d48a5...>

Text of Taibei 228 Peace Memorial Park Pagoda, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/228_Peace_Memorial_Park>

Picture of Fogong Pagoda, <https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BD%9B%E5%AE%AB%E5%AF%BA%E9%87%8A%E8%BF%A6%E5%A...>.

Model of Fogong Pagoda, <https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/chinese-buddhist-pagoda-c95a8214aa6147629d1442c0...>

Text of Fogong Pagoda, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagoda_of_Fogong_Temple  >

Music for Fofong Pagoda, Melody of Nature, <https://www.chosic.com/download-audio/29441/ >

Music for Taibei 228 Peace Park Pagoda, Awake, <https://www.chosic.com/download-audio/28373/>

Model of trees, <https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/vegetation/trees/mobile-tree-package-18...>

Model of Buttons, <https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/gui/icons/colorful-buttons-44118 >