My posts tend to be 'off the cuff' - meaning I'm just writing out in 'one go' about stuff I'm currently thinking about. Not really a lot of pre-planning (in most cases, save for tutorials). Though I do go back and add bits, correct grammar errors, and put in links, pictures, etc. So apologies if you were expecting highly formalized PR or Marketing spiel. ;) (Yes, I know. You weren't!)

The Infamous "First Post"

I decided to start a new blog based around lessons I've learned while pursuing my dream of AR for Books, meaning making it easier to augmented books with augmented reality content, such as AR illustrations.

I can't promise to update it regularly. I think it's more important, in this case at least, to work on my AR engine and my AR for books demo. But when I think I have something useful to say, something useful to others, I mean, I'll do a post.

(For those working in AR/VR, you know that right now, almost everyone is heads down trying to build proof of concepts. We don't want this time round with AR and VR to go the way it did in the '90s! Substance over marketing hype is called for this time!)

I'll also digress and discuss other things that happened along that journey, such as Data Science. It may seem odd, but part of my AR journey was closely related to data visualization and image processing, as well as ideas about how to use AR, game engines, and image processing (with machine learning) in cybersecurity.  It also led me to making my own AR engine as a plugin for Unity, a continuing process even now. Hopefully, I'll have more to show soon on that front, but to be honest, that was an even bigger learning curve - but one well worth the effort, as I understand a lot more about AR than most people, including some working in AR and VR (though that is changing rapidly as AR/VR continues it's exponential rise.) Exciting stuff, and good for those of us who have been involved (in one form or another, and often under different names - other than AR/VR) in the field. The tech is finally catching up to the hopes we've had for AR and VR.

But for now, I'll just leave you with an image and links to the LDM site (with links and images). These are target images that can be used with my first voyage into AR app writing. The app's main purpose was to stress test current (at the time) Android devices, but it included real image targets that would bring up animated 3D short scenes. It took about 6 months, since I also did the 3D work and had a long learning curve in general, and it included my first attempts at 'sketch-like' shaders (seen in the mini-game included with the app), as well as my first attempt at physically tracking the user's hand so that they could 'touch' (interact) with the models.

I'll do a more detailed write up of what I learned, probably several write-ups, including the folly of making open betas in a Google game app focused world. <half smile, half grimace>

You can get the AR Sampler app here (the official spot and therefore the safe way to download):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.littledogsmedia.ldmsampler&hl=en

Here is the first image - though you can also find it on Wikipedia. You can see the others on Barnes and Noble, as they are book covers - or you can simply look for them on the Little Dogs Media main website. Remember, part of the purpose of AR for Books is to enhance the book experience, so augmenting book covers immediately comes to mind. Also, sales of those books helps fund my efforts, so please remember to be kind. Baby steps... Most of us aren't big companies like Microsoft, Google or billion dollar startups like Magic Leap. Some of us, like me, are just indies trying to find cost effective ways to bring AR to small devices.


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