While studying for a BS in computer science at the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL, Tyler Allen works as an undergraduate research assistant at the same institution. During his time living in Gainesville, FL, he has gained valuable experience doing a number of group projects with his research team. One of the projects that Tyler Allen has worked on is an augmented reality application that recognizes distinct images to display 3D models that visualize engineering concepts. This project utilizes the Unity AR Foundation Framework.
Unity is a real-time development platform famously used to create games and other visual applications. The Unity AR Foundation Framework utilizes Unity’s game engine to create augmented reality applications, also known as AR. Augmented reality applications blend computer generated images into live visuals or video.
Frameworks such as the Unity AR Foundation Framework allow computers to detect real-world measurements and dimensions such as distances and shapes.
The Unity AR Foundation Framework is composed of the AR Subsystem and the AR Components.
The AR Subsystem is a way for developers to interact with and use the pre-built features in Unity such as image tracking and ray casting.
AR Components present a relatively easy way for developers to access the features by providing programmatic objects for their code. Objects such as ARSession allow control of the augmented reality lifecycle or ARPlaneManager used for detecting surfaces.
Setting up to use the Unity AR Foundation framework involves a series of simple steps, starting with downloading and installing the Unity application. The next step involves becoming familiar with the Unity user interface and installing the packages using the Package Manager. Once this is done, user settings can be configured. The last step is connecting the device, typically Android or iOS, to Unity.
