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I have been looking at creating an augmented reality application. Can anyone suggest a preferred technology platform to start writing an application of this kind.

I would like this to be a desktop application and not a mobile application. Therefore I want to use a webcam with object recognition.

Thanks!

Rahul Lalit
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Atma
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    What sort of augmented reality do you expect to see from your desk? "kettle"? "telephone"? "annoying coworker"? – skaffman Dec 21 '09 at 21:24

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FLARToolKit is another good place to look. It's free and uses flash + Actionsctript 3. gotoandlearn DOT com has a couple good video tutorial on how to use the library, I'd give you links to them but stackoverflow says I'm not special enough for more than 1 url.

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Michael Apfelbeck
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If you want to build your own AR sdk so you can improve it over time, here I posted a kind of tutorial on which techniques and functions do you need.

I chose OpenCV as it is fast, free and versatile.

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Jav_Rock
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Your best bet is probably a cell phone of some kind.

I would go for Android. With the built in Accelerometer and GPS on Android phones, it won't be too hard to tag locations and detect if you are looking at them. You can then create an overlay ontop of the camera input to tag locations and the like. There are some people who have done similar things on this platform, so you might even get some help.

Good Luck.

Andres
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    You'll need a compass on the device too. – Erik Forbes Dec 08 '09 at 22:28
  • Good thing Android phones have those too! – Andres Dec 08 '09 at 22:28
  • what about for a desktop application? I want to use a webcam and object recognition. – Atma Dec 08 '09 at 23:36
  • Have you seen http://stackoverflow.com/questions/276292/capturing-image-from-webcam-in-java ? Sounds like what you are trying to do. Otherwise, you probably can't go wrong with C++ in .net – Andres Dec 09 '09 at 00:15
  • It might also be worth checking out http://stackoverflow.com/questions/286659/anyone-know-of-good-tutorials-for-creating-an-augmented-reality-application-from if you're just getting started. – Andres Dec 09 '09 at 00:28
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I was at a conference last weekend where somebody demoed Goblin XNA. It's an extension to the XNA framework to support augmented reality. It certainly looked very impressive.

If your already familiar with .net it might be worth a look.

Simon P Stevens
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There is the Android and iPhone Augmented Reality dev kit. iPhone version here Android version here. Assuming you can program in obj-c or java, those should take some of the complicated math off your hands.

haseman
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You can use Nyartoolkit for java on Windows and Linux platforms You can install using http://sixwish.jp/Nyartoolkit/Java/section01.en/ Also you can check http://fivedots.coe.psu.ac.th/~ad/jg/ch165/index.html for Augmented Reality with NyARToolkit e-book and samples.

omer yavuz
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For desktop purposes - object recognition with a webcam - opencv is certainly worth a look. I think there is also a port for mobile devices

HeikoG
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I would suggest you to try NYARToolkit for Unity

you can download basic Unity for free from here

with this Augmented Reality be a 2 minutes task, its very easy to use both "unity" and "NyARToolkit for unity"

Rahul Lalit
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Does desktop application include WebGL applications in the web browser?

If so, then you might want to check out skarf.js, a framework that I have written for handling JavaScript augmented reality libraries in Three.js. It currently integrates JSARToolKit and js-aruco, so you can easily switch between these two libraries to decide on the more suitable one to use.

This framework takes care of a number of things for you, including automatic loading of models when the associated markers are detected (association is specified in a JSON file). There is also a GUI marker system which allows users to control settings using AR markers.

Integration with Three.js is just one line of code to create a Skarf instance and another line of code to update.

There are videos, live demos, source codes, examples and documentation available. Check out http://cg.skeelogy.com/skarfjs/ for more info.

skeelogy
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