Augmented Reality

If there was anything I found most exciting about technology it was how it could make our lives easier with such minimal effort.
Whether it be the outbreak of skype that brought people closer,or online shopping - a boon for people who hate going through multiple shops and yet not finding the right thing,or even online movie bookings (I hate standing in queues).
The most innovative technologies are either those easy to use,easy to develop,or both.They say now a days there's an app for everything,and how true is that!
Recently I tried exploring one such technology called 'Augmented Reality'.
Since the first time I read about it I was awestruck and really wanted to make something that was so amazing,but I held back thinking it would take a lot of time and time was the last thing I had.
So when I had to choose a topic for seminar I plunged at the opportunity,what's better than exploring what I've always wanted to & get graded for it as well.Win-Win!
So what is augmented reality anyways? To put it in simple words,it is the merging of the real world with the virtual world. So unlike virtual reality which is cut-off from the real world mostly,Augmented reality takes as input your surrounding and overlays(or augments) virtual objects over it.
Here's an example:

 AR(Augmented Reality) retains the 'reality', in this case the coffee cup and overlays the virtual object (The colored circular objects) to create a composite view.
It has a dozen of applications ranging from advertising,fashion to education and medicine.
   You might have noticed AR in Pokemon-Go as well.

Isn't Growlithe just adorable!

For my seminar I choose to explore applications of Augmented Reality in Education.
Education , firstly because I think our education system needs a revolution in way things are taught,and secondly because AR is easy to develop and cost-efficient to deploy.So you don't need expensive projectors or some hi-tech device to be able to use,all you need is a smart phone.
I believe embedding technology in our education system can do wonders,specially the ones like AR can go a long way in improving the quality of our system.

For starters I tried to model carbon and hydrogen atoms ,because it's difficult to illustrate them accurately in 2D.Atoms don't really have orbits like planets that are one the same level,orbits in atoms are haphazard and it's difficult to predict the motion of electrons,so to represent atoms like this:

is misleading and not accurate.
Electrons are present in energy levels and these energy levels can be represented as circles but it is difficult to represent that on a 2D paper,and this is where AR could be helpful.

Below are snaps from my implementation:

Carbon Atom

Water Molecule

This is just a part of what I plan to implement.

AR can also work for text recognition as well,so imagine you're reading for exams and you're stuck at a topic,you get your smart phone and point camera towards the text and voila! pops a video of your professor explaining the topic you're stuck on.Wouldn't that make studying easy and fun.That's the power of Augmented Reality.

It is super easy to develop, the tools I used were :

1.Vuforia-Unity

2.3D Max for 3D models (You can use other 3D modelling softwares as well,just check for compatibility)

Have a look at these tutorials:

• http://www.instructables.com/id/Augmented-Reality-Tutorial-PizzaSalad-Android/
• http://www.instructables.com/id/Augmented-Reality-Tutorial-No-1-Marker-Based-Primi/

It's easy to develop and fun to use.So do give it a try and let me know how it goes in the comments.

Resources:

Link to my seminar presentation: http://www.slideshare.net/arshiyasayd/marker-based-augmented-reality