School of Science and Technology 科技學院
Computing Programmes 電腦學系
| Programme | Bachelor of Science with Honours in Web Technologies |
| Supervisor | Dr. Jeff Tang |
| Areas | Innovative Systems |
| Year of Completion | 2014 |
There are few of the 3D model creator application in Android OS.The aim of the project is let more people can make their own 3D model anywhere, enjoy the 3D creation ,enhance the interaction between human and the model as well as the real environment and virtual environment. Moreover, user can modify the 3D model easily, save the time and money while developing the 3D mode. To achieve the aim, the main objective of the project is to develop an android application that user can create and modify the simple 3D model easily. The sub- objectives are:
The application is created in the Android OS, Smartphone or tablet device. First of all, the users using the application in Android OS device which is supported camera, then, they will select the AR marker to start up the application. Secondly, they need to measure the distance and angle that make sure the application can video streaming by the camera. Thirdly, using AR markers to show the 3D model which is provided by the application or creates before and saved. The entire 3D model data saved in the local database. Users can select the function which is shown on the application option to merge the 3D model and AR Marker andsave it in the local database.This is our proposed idea. We will study the possible solutions and implement it afterwards. Fourthly, if user selects using an AR marker to show the 3D model, it must use the camera to focus on the AR marker to measure the coordinate. Fifthly, the application measured the distance, angle and coordinate through the camera. And then it will show the corresponding 3D model in the virtual world, the user can see them on the device screen. Sixthly, user can select the Tool's AR marker or touch the screen to manually modify 3D model, the 3D model will change immediately. Finally, the user can save the modified 3D model in the local database, so, the user can modify the model again anywhere. The system overview is shown below:
For the AR technology in our application, we need to use the AR development kit for development. There are several AR development kits on the Internet, such as ARToolKit, NyARToolkit, Vuforia etc. With the AR development kit, the application can display the 3D model that merge the 3D model and AR marker shown in Figure 3.1, and scale the 3D model size by the AR marker distance with the camera.
Now, we are going to show you that what the technology and software we have usedAndroid SDK, Vuforia SDK, Unity 3D – C#, Eclipse – Java, and Blender.
The system allows user to modify the 3D object in tool marker, after that, they can copy the object from the tool marker to workstation marker. There are 3 lines to imitate the XYZ coordinate in the object. User can merge their object easily. Also, it is quite user-friendly that most of the buttons are placed in the right hand side for the user they can play with the AR marker (Left hand) and press the button (Right hand) at the same time.
After that, user can create own model like this.
The following shows the steps in copying objects:
Step1: Start the android application (Naken), there is main system function (it will show you later in the next part) in the right side.
Step 2: Capture the workstation marker used to allow user copy the object form tool marker to it. If the workstation marker detected, the specific function button will be shown under the main function button on the right hand side.
Step 3:Place the tool marker on the top of the workstation that show the object menu in the right hand side for modifying the object or copy it to the workstation. After that, user can press the copy button for copy object.
The following shows an example of the 3D models created by our application:
After developing the application, we want to know the differences of between our application and the other major 3D software and how does the user feels when he/she has used our application to create a 3D model. To find out this information, we have found 10 testers which all of them has the basic knowledge of controlling a computer and an Android device to help us to do the experiment.
In this experiment, we have chosen UNITY 3D for the controlled experiment since UNITY 3D has the relatively simple interface than other 3D software. Also, it is the major tool that we used to implement our application so we are quite familiar with UNITY 3D. We have found 10 testers to do the experiment. Testers have divided into the control group and the experimental group with both five testers. Two groups are required to create a 3D chair model by using UNITY 3D or NAKEN AR. For considering the testers were very hard to create the 3D chair without any instructions, we have provided the document that step-by-step teaching the testers to create the 3D chair for both UNITY 3D and NAKEN AR. After the testers reading the document, we are allowing them to ask the question before creating the 3D chair then they are starting to create the 3D chair.
We have counted the time of each tester spend on the creating process which aims to figure out does the beginner can get the 3D model easier by using NAKEN AR rather than other 3D software. After creating the 3D chair, they have to fill in the evaluation form that contains the basic questions, the question about creating 3D chair and the question about the whole application.
The following shows the evaluation result of control group and experimental group. The red line represents a goodness threshold (T=4). For each question, a score above/below this line means the users felt positive/negative to our system respectively. In overall, the users are feeling good using NAKEN AR in the build the chair task as we obtained an average score of 5.7375 among all questions, which is high above the goodness thresholdT. Especially, the users feel like playing with LEGO during building the chair, which received an average score of 6.2. Moreover, the average score of UNITY 3D among all question in build the chair task is 5.4625, there shows that NAKEN AR gets a better result in this task.
The score in the overall performance of the whole application of NAKEN AR is greater than UNITY 3D. The layout of NAKEN AR is simple that the tester feels better to control. Also the marker is used to connect the real world and the virtual world that the user can have more interaction with the device. Moreover, the application is developed on android device that the user can get the application easily hence the popularity of the application can be high. The stability of the application and marker detection is quite high that the user can use the application with a better user experience. However, NAKEN AR does not very easy to learn that the user need to overcome some challenge and get familiar with it. Lastly, the NAKEN AR is good enough that the testers want to recommend the application to the other people. From the experimental result, since all parts are quite good except the part of “Easy to learn” has the relatively low score. So we plan to write a set of instruction that could clearly teach the user to use our application.
In traditional, the 3D model creation must sit in front of the computer and using the professional software such as UNITY 3D to finish the creation. The traditional way, it is very time consuming to learn, quite difficult to build the 3D model and pay an expensive price to buy the license. Today, we provide an alternate way to do the 3D model creation. The way that we provided is using “NAKEN AR” in an Android device cooperates with the work-desk marker and the object marker.
At the very beginning, the aim of this project is let more people can make their own 3D model anywhere, enjoy the3D creation, enhance the interaction between human and the model as well as the real environment and virtual environment. Moreover, user can create the 3D model easily, save the time and money. NAKEN AR has been achieved the aim. Firstly, it is developed on Android platform. Every android device can be downloaded the application through the Internet or Google PlayStore. Since there is over billion of people are using android device so that NAKEN AR is very easy to known by the Android user. Also the AR topic is so hot now, our application can be searched by those people that are interested inAR easily. As a result, it is reaching one of our project objectives – Popularity. It is very important that the application can be known by and get by the people to do the improvement and maintenance, or commercial.
In the future, there are two possible aspects that are education and entertainment for NAKEN AR to focus on. In education aspect, NAKEN AR allows students to create the chemical structure 3D model in the lesson and the teacher can handle which student does not understand the structure. It has been increased the interaction between teacher and student. In entertainment aspect, NAKEN AR can be the pioneer in the AR 3D model creation and social interaction application that on the android platform.
Copyright Au-Duong Tin Yung, Luk Hoi Kit, Ng Yui Wang and Jeff Tang 2014
