Approach 2 – IanD

*featured image is my prototype mock-up, using a model I didn’t create

Title: “AR Business Card”

One Sentence summary/abstract: This is a business card that, when read by a corresponding augmented reality program, will display a photorealistic 3D portrait of the cardholder.

Visuals:

Here is what the portrait will roughly look like. This was created using 25 images and the software 3DF Zephyr. I will do another series if I continue with this project and trying to get at least 40 effective images.

Here is a card concept I came up with. I used the lines not to evoke the 90’s laser school picture backgrounds, but instead to provide points for tracking. I’m not sure this will work, but I will give it a try once the program is complete.

Background: Business cards, although they exist in 3D space, are awfully 2-dimensional. You can incorporate brilliant and beautiful design into a card and use various types of paper to achieve different haptic interactions with it, yet there is more to be desired. What if there was a way to embed information in a card and free it from a flat plane? A few years ago, QR codes increased in popularity and allowed users to scan cards, unlocking another dimension of content. Unfortunately, these codes tend to stand out like a sore thumb aesthetically. This AR business card concept seeks to imbed another dimension in the medium while also being non-destructive to the visual design.

Explanation: In order to create this interaction, single-camera photogrammetry is used to create a 3D portrait of the cardholder. This involves taking 60+ photographs radially around their head, capturing it from every angle. These photographs are then fed into AutoDesk ReCap Pro Photo, where they slowly generate a point cloud that creates the mesh of the model. Blender is used to clean up the mesh and then ReCap maps the texture of the face onto the mesh, producing a photorealistic semblance of the subject. Once the model is finished, it is important into Unity to be used with the Vuforia AR add-on. At this point, it is as easy as defining the AR camera and importing the business card you wish to use as the AR target. Then, when you hold up the target card to the camera, the 3D portrait will be seen above it no matter which way you orient it.

Credits: My inspiration for this project is the 3D Scanning & Photogrammetry group I have recently joined on Facebook, on which I have seen ridiculously detailed human likenesses rendered in 3D. I knew that I’d have to try to make one myself. The AR aspect of the project comes from my desire to prepare for the internship I’ll be working this summer; at an AR company in Munich.

Budget:

Unity + Vuforia: Free

DSLR: Owned

AutoDesk Recap Pro Photo: Free w/ Student License