1、Table of ContentsThe Mechanics of AR Measurement AppsTHE POWER OF LIDAR FOR DEVELOPING MEASURING APPSRENDERING AR CONTENTChallenges of Developing Augmented Reality Apps for MeasurementTRACKINGACCURACYPERFORMANCEHow to Build an AR Measurement App Step by StepFLOOR SCANNING AND FLOOR PLAN CREATIONADDI

2、NG OBJECTS IN ARESTIMATION MODULETHE SCOPE OF PROOF OF CONCEPT(POC)Home Scanning:Case Study for AR Room Measurement AppPROVIDING ACCURATE MEASUREMENTSDEVELOPING THE COST ESTIMATION FEATURECHOOSING DIFFERENT MATERIALS IN ARMobiDev:AR Experience to Move Your Project Forward1Real-time area calculations

3、,trying on dcor elements,home repair estimates these and more emerge from the power of smartphone AR measuring tools.Modern augmented reality technologies powered by LiDAR,AR SDKs andmachine learning algorithms allow us to achieve this.But it requires specific ARand AI expertise that even technology

4、-advanced companies may lack.Understanding the process of developing an AR measuring app is critical toseeing your project through.Your team has chosen an idea,come up with aplan,and is ready to put it into action.So lets take it to the next level and figureout how to implement such a project in the

5、 best possible way.The Mechanics of AR Measurement AppsAugmented reality measuring apps come in various shapes and sizes.They maysimply be 3D rulers,allowing the user to measure the distance between two ormore points.The measuring tools may also be a means to an end.For example,they might make it po

6、ssible to virtually change the wallpaper of a room and givethe user insights into how much wallpaper they should buy and how much it willcost.AR measurement apps utilize the following elements:Smartphone cameras and sensorsLiDAR for iOSTime of Flight(ToF)for AndroidARKit and ARCore SDKs with renderi

7、ng engine to render AR content onscreensIn some cases,custom machine learning algorithmsTHE POWER OF LIDAR FOR DEVELOPING MEASURING APPSAR SDKs have built-in features for measurement,but they are quite limited.Forexample,ARKit by default recognizes horizontal surfaces well but has troublewith vertic

8、al ones.The reason is that the horizontal surfaces are alwaysperpendicular to the gravity vector,so we know their orientation and an AR SDKjust has to find its vertical position,while vertical surfaces can be locatedcloser/further,rotated at an angle around the gravity vector,etc.Thats whereAR capab

9、ilities are not enough and developers need additional hardware power.2LiDAR is some of the most powerful hardware available for smartphones tounderstand the dimensions of their environment.LiDAR is a depth sensor.Itmeasures the time it takes for light to bounce offof surfaces back to the sensorusing

10、 pulsed infrared lasers to achieve this.Mesh creation with LiDAR is muchmore accurate because it provides more precise spatial information about thereal-world environment.LiDAR is available on most modern iPhones and iPads and provides greatcapabilities for developers to make fairly accurate virtual

11、 measurements.Butthere are some limitations to this technology:Lighting conditions:LiDAR uses its own light to capture the environmentand make measurements.This means it can accomplish its goals in avariety of lighting conditions but may still be affected by some ambientlight conditions.Surface refl

12、ectivity:mirrors and glass may impede the success ofinfrared measurements.Distance:the farther away the sensor is,the less accurate it will be(theoptimal distance is 1-2 meters)Therefore,it is impossible to completely rely only on hardware capabilities in ARmeasuring app development.Some cases requi

13、re additional software solutions,in particular with the integration of AI development.RENDERING AR CONTENTAR SDKs with 3D engines(SceneKit,Metal,RealityKit,Sceneform,Unity,Unreal,OpenGL,etc.)are indispensable,if you plan to render any kind of AR content onthe screen after taking measurements of spac

14、e.The two most popular nativeSDKs available to develop AR content for smartphones are ARKit for Appledevices and ARCore for Android devices.These two SDKs are comparable in theircapabilities and are generally only limited by the hardware of the device.Typically,Apple devices have better AR performan

15、ce due to their superior andmore consistent hardware.In contrast,Android devices are typically lessconsistent,having a variety of different hardware specifications.3Also,iOS apps have LiDAR,and although Android has ToF as an analogue,thissensor is present on a very limited series of devices.In gener

16、al,with the help ofARCore,it is impossible to create this kind of a mesh today as compared todevelopment with the help of ARKit,which is why iOS most often becomes themain focus in the development of AR applications.Challenges of Developing Augmented RealityApps for MeasurementBefore diving into the

17、 development process,lets examine some challenges ofdeveloping an augmented reality app for measurement.This will help youunderstand what points to pay special attention to during development andwhat expectations to set for your development team.TRACKINGMeasuring applications need to be able to appr

18、opriately track the object orspace being measured.Without accurate tracking,measurements will beunreliable.This can be accounted for with software,but its also important toconsider the human element.Instructing users with on-screen directions canhelp them use the application correctly so that they c

19、an get accurate and reliableresults.ACCURACYIn our projects at MobiDev,we have achieved an AR measurement accuracy of99.7%.However,this is subject to a number of factors and can vary dependingon various conditions.For example,the lighting of objects being measured,human error,complexity of objects b

20、eing measured,and more.Indoor applications perform the best.However,outdoor environments andsignificantly large indoor spaces can be tricky.Since AR uses odometry tounderstand position,and infrared sensors can only see so far,users can run intotrouble.However,outdoor spaces do have one advantage com

21、pared to indoor lighting.During the day,the sun can light most spaces reliably.4PERFORMANCEAugmented reality measurement apps,like other AR applications,are resourceintensive.Theyll use more power and drain batteries faster.In many cases theycan slow down your devices other features.If the applicati

22、on is demanding toomany resources,it may even slow down the app itself.The best way to deal with this problem is to optimize the apps code as much aspossible for the specific platform youre developing on.Use efficient algorithmsto process the camera feed and calculate measurements.You can also minim

23、izeunnecessary features and graphics that slow down the experience.How to Build an AR Measurement App Stepby StepThere are two parts to an AR measurement app:the AR feature,and then theinfrastructure that makes the AR rendering possible.In what follows,welldescribe a typical indoor measuring applica

24、tion.Keep in mind that depending onyour objectives,your application may have different needs and steps.FLOOR SCANNING AND FLOOR PLAN CREATIONLets imagine we want to design an app that can create virtual floor plans withaccurate dimensions.The user will point their smartphone at floors,ceilings,andwa

25、lls for the app to process.ARKit has a built-in tool called RoomPlan that makes this task much easier.Thistool allows developers to create AR room measurement apps that useaugmented reality to scan and measure the dimensions of a room in real-timewith LiDAR.The user experience with a RoomPlan-enable

26、d app is generally as follows:Open the app and select the room scanning feature.Aim the camera at the corner of the room.Move the device around to capture the room from different angles.The ARKit framework will use computer vision algorithms to analyze theimages captured by the camera and create a 3

27、D model of the room.5The app will then use the 3D model to calculate the dimensions of theroom,including the length,width,and height.The app may also allow you to add virtual objects,such as furniture orartwork,to the scene to see how they fit.SourceARKit RoomPlan is a powerful tool,but it has some

28、limitations you need to knowmore about in order to set the right expectations:Limited chip compatibility:ARKit RoomPlan is only available on Appledevices with an A12 Bionic chip or newer.This means that many iPhoneand iPad models are incompatible.Lighting conditions:if the room isnt lit well enough,

29、it can be difficult tovisually capture the room and display AR content.Reflective surfaces:these will disrupt the infrared sensors.For example,if you have a small mirror in the room,this is not a big problem,but if it isa room with giant mirrors like a gym or dance studio,then RoomPlan willunfortuna

30、tely not help to scan everything correctly.6ADDING OBJECTS IN ARAs in most complex AR solutions,rendering virtual objects is the easy part.Itrelies heavily on the data and measurements that you use.This step is whereyou can display content like colored walls,a 3D ruler,furniture,and more.3D visualiz

31、ation features like rulers allow users to better understand themeasurements that they see on screen.Displaying this information in 3D spacewill require some creative thinking about UX and UI.The goal is to make surethat the application and its UI are easy to use,visually appealing,and easy tounderst

32、and.ESTIMATION MODULEThis tool leverages algorithms and statistical techniques to analyze the datacollected by the measurement module and generate an estimate.This allowsyou to perform complex calculations such as:build-out/renovation prices based on metrics like floor or wall area.costs for heating

33、 the house,knowing its area or volume,as well as thecost of gasoptimal power of the air conditioner for the roomthe number of WiFi routers,knowing the area or volumeapproximate time of robot cleaning of the specified area with a vacuumcleaner,etcFor example,if your business sells wallpaper,a custome

34、r may measure the areaof the wall of a room with your app.Based on the measurements they take,theapp will use the estimation module to predict how much wallpaper they shouldbuy and how much it will cost.There are a number of ways to make your estimation model more effective:Error correction:small er

35、rors can be expected and accounted for.Forexample,if a user accidentally moves the device slightly during themeasurement process,the estimation model can apply smoothing orfiltering techniques to make up for it.Confidence intervals:this is a statistical technique used to make usersaware of uncertain

36、ty.Providing a confidence interval to the user can help7them make an informed decision about the result of the data theycollected.Calibration:ensuring that the device is properly calibrated can improvethe accuracy of data results.Prompting the user to calibrate the deviceprior to taking a measuremen

37、t will help make results more consistent.Error messages:these messages can be an important tool for users tohelp them understand the cause of problems they may encounter.Specific error messages advise the user on how to improve their results.For example,if there isnt enough light in the space,the ap

38、p can alert theuser and suggest that they turn on the lights.With these features,the estimation module can provide more accurate insightsto the user to help them make actionable decisions on the AR measurementdata they collect.THE SCOPE OF PROOF OF CONCEPT(POC)If the project is complex and has many

39、uncertainties,the best solution is to startwith a proof of concept(PoC)to check the accuracy of the result under the givenconditions.PoC will not be a full-fledged product that you can show to users,butit will be a confirmation that your idea is viable and worth investing in.Basically,its a small pa

40、rt of a minimum viable product(MVP).In most cases,a PoC cantake around 1-3 weeks to create for augmented reality applications.After this,your development team will be ready to proceed with MVP to addadditional features to demonstrate the viability of the project.This might takeseveral months and wil

41、l involve connecting the MVP to backend databases,which might include information about material and service prices,andintegration with your content management system(CMS).This will give you amore realistic representation of what your AR measurement application maylook like later on.8Home Scanning:C

42、ase Study for AR RoomMeasurement AppThere are many AR projects in MobiDevs portfolio,and the lions share of themare related to measurements.Heres an example of an AR room measurementapp that our team worked on.Our client was a United States-based construction and renovation firm.Theyneeded a solutio

43、n for iOS devices that would enable their customers to visualizerefurbishment in augmented reality.Once measured and visualized,the clientwould be provided with an estimate for the renovation cost.The clients were given the freedom to choose materials and objects from thecatalog to help them configu

44、re their estimate to their budget and needs.This project had a number of challenges that needed to be overcome,such as:Providing accurate measurementsDeveloping the cost estimation featureGiving users the opportunity to mix different materials in augmentedrealityPROVIDING ACCURATE MEASUREMENTSEnsuri

45、ng highly accurate measurements was essential.Too much variance inmeasurements could create a wrong idea about the price and materials neededby the client to accomplish their goals.At the time of this case study,Apple ARKitRoomPlan was not yet released.To tackle this challenge,MobiDevs teamdeveloped

46、 a custom solution.The user would point the camera at a corner ofthe room,choose the walls,and the corners would be automatically detected.Since RoomPlan was released,we have updated the app to make it moreaccurate and easy to use.DEVELOPING THE COST ESTIMATION FEATURETo provide users with a quote f

47、or the price of the materials and other objectsselected,our team designed the app to calculate the area of walls and floors.It9then subtracts the area of windows and doors using the shoelace formula(Gausss area formula).In the next stages,we plan to integrate a database with a catalog of goods andpr

48、ices with APIs.This will allow the app to correlate the received area with theprices of materials to get rough estimates.CHOOSING DIFFERENT MATERIALS IN ARUsers find it helpful to be able to compare different materials togethersimultaneously to make a decision.Making it so users could compare more t

49、hanone material in this way was challenging,but we were able to create a customsolution to achieve our goal.To accomplish this,our team developed a special algorithm and ARKits graphdata structure.This allowed us to divide the floor area into an unlimited numberof zones and set the appropriate mater

50、ial for each of them.Note the tiling UI that allows users to mix materials in a grid in AR.You can findout more details about this case here.10MobiDev:AR Experience to Move YourProject ForwardMobiDev has been creating AR projects for over 13 years and we have expertisewith challenges of varying comp

51、lexities.We have experience implementing notonly 3D visualization but also incorporating it into complex systems capable ofproviding extensive functionality for a variety of business needs.Where existingAR tools have limitations,our AI experts get involved to create customalgorithms and breakthrough

52、 for success.Now that you have made plans to move forward with your project,were here tohelp bring the AR expertise you need to the development stage.Check out ouraugmented reality development services and contact us today when your teamis ready to make that next step into the future.11contactmobidev.biz