jonny round boy
Member
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2007
- Messages
- 3,227
I was browsing the Official Google SketchUp Blog the other day, and found an article about Augmented Reality for SketchUp. And it's awesome! I won't bother copying info/videos from that page, so I'd recommend reading that link before continuing....
...OK, so hopefully (if you read the article!) you now know what Augmented Reality is. I figured this would be a really cool way of visualising designs in an actual space. You could design a piece of furniture for example, and show a client what it would look like in it's intended surroundings.
The program is called AR Media, and there is a version which is completely free. It also has the added benefit that it's very simple to use!
I downloaded the program yesterday, and then discovered that my camera doesn't function as a webcam. Cue a last-minute trip to PC World to buy the cheapest webcam I could find. Got home,installed the software for the (Microsoft branded) webcam, and then discovered that my (Microsoft run) computer won't recognise the cam! Back to PC World (twice in the space of 1/2 hour!) and swapped it for a Logitech one, which did work. Yay!
Then, I discovered that the free version doesn't allow you to export videos. You can watch it live, but can't record it. So, I downloaded a free 'screencasting' program called HyperCam 2.
Unfortunately (are you sensing a trend here?) I then found that my 5 year old laptop (1.5GHz processor, 1GB Ram) isn't powerful enough to run both the AR program AND the video-grabber at the same time. After a few failed attempts, I managed to tweak the settings on both to get them to work, albeit not terribly well!!!
So, here is a video of my first attempts at using 'Augmented Reality'. The first part is a very basic test with a cube; the second part is with an outline model I made earlier today of a WCR-type work centre for my CT26:
ARtest1b.wmv
It's not perfect by any means - the video is jerky and the frame rate is abysmal, but that's the fault of my laptop not the program. With a better computer, I'm sure this could be really useful for presenting designs to clients, giving them some context (which you don't always get with normal renders).
There are a couple of points where the model literally 'falls over' - I think the software gets confused if the target has too much light (relatively) and gets washed out.
On the whole though, I'm quite pleased with the results. It's very easy to use, and I'd definitely recommend giving it a try if you like modelling your projects in SketchUp before you actually build them.
JRB
...OK, so hopefully (if you read the article!) you now know what Augmented Reality is. I figured this would be a really cool way of visualising designs in an actual space. You could design a piece of furniture for example, and show a client what it would look like in it's intended surroundings.
The program is called AR Media, and there is a version which is completely free. It also has the added benefit that it's very simple to use!
I downloaded the program yesterday, and then discovered that my camera doesn't function as a webcam. Cue a last-minute trip to PC World to buy the cheapest webcam I could find. Got home,installed the software for the (Microsoft branded) webcam, and then discovered that my (Microsoft run) computer won't recognise the cam! Back to PC World (twice in the space of 1/2 hour!) and swapped it for a Logitech one, which did work. Yay!
Then, I discovered that the free version doesn't allow you to export videos. You can watch it live, but can't record it. So, I downloaded a free 'screencasting' program called HyperCam 2.
Unfortunately (are you sensing a trend here?) I then found that my 5 year old laptop (1.5GHz processor, 1GB Ram) isn't powerful enough to run both the AR program AND the video-grabber at the same time. After a few failed attempts, I managed to tweak the settings on both to get them to work, albeit not terribly well!!!
So, here is a video of my first attempts at using 'Augmented Reality'. The first part is a very basic test with a cube; the second part is with an outline model I made earlier today of a WCR-type work centre for my CT26:
ARtest1b.wmv
It's not perfect by any means - the video is jerky and the frame rate is abysmal, but that's the fault of my laptop not the program. With a better computer, I'm sure this could be really useful for presenting designs to clients, giving them some context (which you don't always get with normal renders).
There are a couple of points where the model literally 'falls over' - I think the software gets confused if the target has too much light (relatively) and gets washed out.
On the whole though, I'm quite pleased with the results. It's very easy to use, and I'd definitely recommend giving it a try if you like modelling your projects in SketchUp before you actually build them.
JRB
