Does anyone know how i can begin to get involved in ar (augmented reality) development?

Question

I want to one day work on the marketing and management side of ar development, but would love to know at least some basics on the process

Answer 1

VR/AR (I know you said AR, but the two virtually go hand in hand) encompasses a wide variety of uses and technologies, it can be difficult to know where to start. I think the applications matter more than the technology simply because the tech is ever-changing and guided by the needs and wants of people.

Education, video games, medical and art are just a few possible applications for AR. There's a lot of different technologies. Displays, HUDs, tracking and input devices such as speech and gesture recognition, for example. And equally important is the software, a lot of which relates to computer vision.

You need keep up with relevant news because this field is changing FAST. Good sites are Road To VR (http://www.roadtovr.com/) and Next Reality (https://next.reality.news/) - just immerse yourself in related knowledge.

Start developing with ARToolKit (https://artoolkit.org/), which is an open source tracking library that allows you to create virtual overlays in real time. You don't need any other devices (which can be expensive) to get started than a device with a camera. There are SDKs available for PC, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS, plus a plugin for Unity. Languages available are Java, Objective C, C, C++, plus JavaScipt port through a community-created port.

Eventually you should buy quality VR headsets (like Oculus Rift or HTC Vive), but a cheap one will work to get you started. HoloLens is another device that is hot stuff right now, but again, it's expensive.

Things like motion control are easy to start with. I'm saying this because that's my experience with VR/AR development. I've developed software for Leap Motion, which is an IR sensor device that takes hand and finger movement as input and can be used on its own or, as it's most known for, as a peripheral for Oculus Rift which makes the VR/AR experience even more immersive.

Answer 2

This is some great information. I'm a upcoming sophomore international business and marketing student this year and i want to kind of find my niche for marketing. i think ar marketing is gnna be big around when i enter the workforce. Thanks so much. if you have any other suggestions please let me know. i plan to start working on some fun projects in the coming weeks.

Answer 3

I'm using AR.js a JavaScript port of ARToolKit library, It use Three.js for 3d. You can develop a
n AR app very easily with these tools!