Presentation and tracking of an animated model in a mobile augmented reality application

Tehnologije obogatene (angl. Augmented Reality, okrajšano AR) in drugih vrst resničnosti doživljajo spremembe in napredek in ponujajo različne priložnosti na mnogih področjih. Eno od njih je tudi turizem, kjer lahko pripomočki oziroma aplikacije na prenosnih napravah obogatijo ogled znamenitosti in izboljšajo izkušnjo gostov ter posledično privabijo več turistov. V diplomski nalogi so predstavljene različne stopnje resničnosti ter področja, na katerih se uporabljajo in kjer z razvojem novih tehnologij prihaja tudi do novih možnosti in priložnosti. Narejen je pregled nekaterih tehnologij in orodij obogatene resničnosti z uporabo spletnih tehnologij in domorodnih aplikacij (angl. native applications) z njihovimi prednostmi in slabostmi. Pri praktičnem delu diplomske naloge je orodje Vuforia v povezavi s programom Unity uporabljeno za izdelavo turistične aplikacije obogatene resničnosti, ki je namenjena popestritvi obiska Ljubljane, pri čemer je v resnični svet na Zmajskem mostu ob zaznavi markerja vključen navidezni objekt Ljubljanskega zmaja, ki oživi in odleti proti Ljubljanskemu gradu. Opisani so posamezni koraki izdelave te aplikacije in predstavljene ugotovitve ter nadaljnje možnosti za nadgradnjo. Glavna ugotovitev diplomske naloge je, da je aplikacija sicer delujoča, vendar ne dovolj zanesljiva za uporabo v praksi, zato bi bilo potrebno uporabiti druge pristope ali orodja za sledenje premikom naprave in zavedanje okolice.Technologies of Augmented Reality and other types of digital realities have been changing and progressing, therefore offering different opportunities in various fields. Among them is tourism, where technical aids and applications installed on mobile devices can enhance sightseeing tours and improve visitors’ experiences and in turn attract more and more tourists. This diploma thesis introduces different levels of reality, their fields of use, and the new possibilities and opportunities that development of these new technologies brings. The thesis includes an overview, advantages and disadvantages of some technologies and tools used in web-based and application-based Augmented Reality. For the practical part of this thesis, Vuforia Engine was used in combination with Unity Editor to create an augmented tourist application. The intent of the application is to make visits of Ljubljana more interesting and memorable by including a virtual object of Ljubljana dragon into the real world when a ready-made marker at the Dragon bridge is captured by mobile device camera. The dragon then comes to life and flies towards Ljubljana castle. Each step of the development process of this application is described. Findings that were reached and further improvement possibilities are presented. The main conclusion of the thesis is that while the application is working, it is not reliable enough to be used in practice, therefore different tools or technologies for movement tracking and environmental understanding should be used