=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2898/paper06
|storemode=property
|title=Analysis of tools for the development of augmented reality technologies
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2898/paper06.pdf
|volume=Vol-2898
|authors=Tetiana A. Vakaliuk,Svitlana I. Pochtoviuk
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/aredu/VakaliukP21
}}
==Analysis of tools for the development of augmented reality technologies==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2898/paper06.pdf
Analysis of tools for the development of augmented
reality technologies
Tetiana A. Vakaliuk1,2,3 , Svitlana I. Pochtoviuk4
1
Zhytomyr Polytechnic State University, 103 Chudnivsyka Str., Zhytomyr, 10005, Ukraine
2
Kryvyi Rih State Pedagogical University, 54 Gagarin Ave., Kryvyi Rih, 50086, Ukraine
3
Institute of Information Technologies and Learning Tools of the NAES of Ukraine, 9 M. Berlynskoho Str., Kyiv, 04060,
Ukraine
4
Kremenchuk Mykhailo Ostrogradsky National University, 20 Pershotravneva Str., Kremenchuk, 39600, Ukraine
Abstract
The article considers cross-platform products that should be used to develop augmented reality technolo-
gies: Unreal Development, Kit, Unity, Godot, Engine, Cocos2D, MonoGame, Unreal Engine, Marmalade,
and others. Also, the possibilities of known SDKs for the development of augmented reality applications
(Wikitude, Vuforia, Kudan, Maxst, Xzimg, NyARToolkit, Metaio SDK) are given. It is established that for
the development of augmented reality technologies can be used not only cross-platform engines but also
sets of development tools. Such kits allow you to speed up and simplify the process of developing any
program with elements of augmented reality. These advantages and disadvantages will help beginners to
choose the most convenient tool for developing augmented reality technologies. In addition, the article
attempts to identify criteria and indicators for the selection of such environments, as well as their expert
evaluation.
Keywords
development tools, technologies, augmented reality, SDK
1. Introduction
Recently, scientists have been paying special attention to the use of augmented reality in various
classes, both in general secondary education [1, 2] and in higher education [3, 4]. Therefore,
the development of various augmented reality (AR) tools is also relevant. However, to develop
any AR tool, it is need to make a choice of appropriate development tools.
In particular, Kiv et al. [5] explored the possibilities of transforming augmented reality into
augmented education. Morkun et al. [6] considered augmented reality as a tool for visualization
of ultrasound propagation in heterogeneous media based on the k-space method.
Chen et al. [7] conducted a review of augmented reality technology. In their article, they
introduces the development tools, key technologies and application of AR in several field.
AREdu 2021: 4th International Workshop on Augmented Reality in Education, May 11, 2021, Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine
Envelope-Open tetianavakaliuk@gmail.com (T. A. Vakaliuk); svetlanapoctovyuk@gmail.com (S. I. Pochtoviuk)
GLOBE https://sites.google.com/view/neota/profile-vakaliuk-t (T. A. Vakaliuk); http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/ASUA/0055819
(S. I. Pochtoviuk)
Orcid 0000-0001-6825-4697 (T. A. Vakaliuk); 0000-0002-0463-0072 (S. I. Pochtoviuk)
© 2021 Copyright for this paper by its authors.
Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
CEUR
Workshop
Proceedings
http://ceur-ws.org
ISSN 1613-0073
CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org)
119
Some authors consider the possibility of developing augmented reality technologies. In
particular, Kanivets et al. [8] investigated the development of mobile applications of augmented
reality for projects with projection drawings, Bilous et al. [9] proposed the development of
AR-applications as a promising area of research for students, and Hordiienko et al. [10] - the
development of a model of the solar system in AR and 3D.
Others consider the possibility of using augmented reality technologies in education. Thus,
Shyshkina and Marienko [11] studied augmented reality as a tool for open science platform by
research collaboration in virtual teams; Iatsyshyn et al. [12] studied the possibilities of using
the application of augmented reality technologies for the preparation of specialists of the new
technological era; Midak et al. [13] considered augmented reality technology within studying
natural subjects in primary school; Rashevska et al. [14] described the possibilities of using
augmented reality tools in the teaching of two-dimensional plane geometry; Oleksiuk and
Oleksiuk [15] investigated exploring the potential of augmented reality for teaching school
computer science.
That is why the purpose of the article is to analyze the available tools to develop augmented
reality technologies, in particular for the education sector.
2. Results
2.1. Overview of available tools for working with AR
At the moment, the choice of cross-platform products is small. Here are some of the most
popular cross-platform engines on the market: Unreal Development Kit, Unity, Godot, Engine,
Cocos2D, MonoGame, Marmalade, and others.
All these engines have good technical performance and support most mobile platforms.
However, most developers make their choice based not only on the number of supported
platforms but also on the ease of transferring code to different platforms, performance, and
more.
Since you need a tool to create applications for phones with the Android operating system,
several options have been selected.
Cocos2d is a framework for creating applications and games for iOS, Android, Windows
Phone. The engine is completely free, there are many branches: Cocos2d-ObjC, Cocos2d-x,
Cocos2d-html5, and Cocos2d-XNA. Most often Cocos2d is used to create games for iOS. The
engine is highly adaptable, well suited for novice developers. In terms of performance, it beats
Unity, but the design of the Cocos2d itself is worse than the competitor.
Unreal Engine 4 is a gaming engine created by Epic Games. Unreal Engine 4 is the most
popular game engine for creating movies and AAA projects.
Godot Engine is free game engine, has a powerful visual scene editor, animation editor, its
integrated development environment.
Unity is a gaming engine for developing 2D and 3D applications and games for various
platforms [16, 17, 18]. Unity can be downloaded for free. This version will not be a demo
version or for a while, you can use it to create your project. Only it is impossible to expose it
paid in the market, it is necessary to put advertising in the application or game.
120
The Unity development environment is the most convenient for the software implementation
of augmented reality technology. It is a high-level development environment for applications and
games. Includes a powerful editor with a graphical interface and a graphical engine optimized
for mobile devices.
Developer scripts can be written in any .NET programming language and compiled into
regularly managed assemblies (DLLs). There are built-in compilers for C#, UnityScript, and Boo.
At the same time, there is a possibility of the organization of the interface with the external
code. The advantages also include an active community of developers and many ready-made
developments and extensions.
Here are the main criteria by which to describe Unity as a modern gaming engine with rich
potential and ample opportunities (see table 1) [19].
Table 1
The main characteristics of Unity
Indicator Characteristic
Sound Own audio plug-ins, the ability to use third-party audio plug-ins; call animation
scripts – create keyframes in the animation editor and link scripts to them; sound
mood changes, call animation scripts – create keyframes in the animation editor and
link scripts to them; ability to change sound settings.
Graphics A way of representing objects that do not have clear geometric boundaries (smoke,
vapors, liquids, etc.); ability to place images from the camera not on the screen, but
in the texture, needed to create some effects; built-in sprite editor can automatically
cut a raster with sprites into frames and create animation from them. Link events to
specific animation keyframes; use of various types of compression of textures and
packing of the used frames of sprites in one resource; built-in Box2D library, and
support for NVIDIA PhysX (physics implemented through use in GPU calculations);
alphabet, cropping part of the image on the mask, which is placed in the alpha
component of the texture; super-accurate collision detection; dynamic Batching, a
rendering optimization algorithm allows you to increase productivity.
Animation Visual state editor (State machines), which can be linked to game objects and use
to create and improve animation; integrated animation editor; create scripts using
c#, JavaScript, or Boo; native integration with Visual Studio; realistic animation;
one-click placement; optimized graphics.
Here are the advantages and disadvantages of Unity:
•
• advantages:
– ease of use and performance;
– a huge number of supported platforms: Windows, iOS, Android;
– ability to run the project in the browser as an HTML5 application;
– good performance both in small games on weak mobile platforms, and in difficult
big projects on high-end consoles;
– support for both 2D and 3D modes without much effort;
– powerful built-in animation system Mechanim;
121
– C# or JavaScript programming language;
– large community, where you can get support and answers to questions of interest
to Unity;
– built-in visual editor, greatly simplifies and speeds up the process of creating a
program;
– assets store, a store for developers that opens access to a huge number of models,
textures, scripts, and additions for Unity;
– the ability to use a completely free development environment MonoDevelop comes
complete with Unity, which is an external IDE (for example, Microsoft Visual Studio
or IntelliJ IDEA);
• disadvantages:
– Unity source code is closed and available only if you purchase an Enterprise license;
– problems will have to wait for updates and fixes, which sometimes takes quite a
long time;
– lack of such a familiar concept as ”game loop” or game cycle - there is no single
point of entry, as in other engines, each game object can have a script or several
scripts, its own set of events, and its game cycle;
– unusual and sometimes difficult to master visual editor, which can be a problem for
novice developers.
2.2. Capabilities of available SDKs for developing augmented reality
applications
SDK (Software development kit) – a set of development tools that allows software professionals
to create applications for a specific software package, software basic development tools, hardware
platform, computer system, game consoles, operating systems, and other platforms. The SDK
takes advantage of each platform and reduces integration time [20].
All SDKs can be divided into two major groups [21]:
1. Created by developers for those who want to make an independent program or game. An
example of such an SDK is DirectX, which is installed on almost any computer.
2. Self-sufficient tools. These include the Torque Game Engine SDK from Garage Games –
a full-fledged gaming engine that supports the most advanced technologies. Unlike
DirectX, with Torque you can create professional games without a deep knowledge of 3D
programming technologies. Torque uses a C-shaped scripting programming language.
Let’s make a comparative analysis of available SDKs (see table 2 and 3).
To determine the most optimal environment for the development of a mobile application, the
method of expert evaluation was used [23].
To this end, the manifestation of each of the defined criteria for each of these development
environments was checked, for which the experts were offered a corresponding questionnaire.
A total of 20 respondents were involved (experts, deans of faculties, heads, and lecturers of
departments of higher education institutions related to the IT field, as well as IT specialists).
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Table 2
Overview of augmented reality SDK for iOS and Android [20]
SDK Description Sup- Software features Cost
ported
platforms
Wikitude A paid plat- Android, Three-dimensional tracking technol- Free trial.
(see fig- form for iOS, ogy based on SLAM, GEO Data; im- Full function-
ure 1) working with smart age recognition and tracking; cloud ality starts
augmented glasses. recognition. from € 1990.
reality.
Vuforia One of the Android, Recognition of different types of vi- Free. But
(see fig- world’s most iOS, sual objects (cube, cylinder, plane); there are also
ure 2) popular plat- UWP and text and environment recognition, Vu- paid plug-ins
forms to Unity. Mark (a combination of image and that cost $ 99
help develop QR code); using Vuforia Object Scan- a month.
augmented ner, you can scan and create object
reality. labels, Unity plugin is very powerful
and easy to integrate.
Kudan Vuforia’s Android, Recognition of simple images and 3D The free
main competi- iOS. objects provides easy database gener- version is for
tor greatly ation in the Unity editor. application
simplifies aug- testing only.
mented reality The cost of a
development. paid license
is $ 1230.
To determine the degree of manifestation of each criterion, respondents were asked to evaluate
its performance on a 4-point scale (from 0 to 3) [23]. The indicator was considered positive if
the value of the arithmetic mean of its parameters was not less than 1.5 [23]. The degree of
manifestation of the criterion was determined as follows: insufficiently manifested 0–50% of
the indicators are positive; critical – 50–55%; sufficient 56–75%; high 76–100% [23].
Analysis of the available environments for the development of AR mobile application allowed
to identify the following criteria and relevant indicators for their selection:
1. The design criterion characterizes the convenience, accessibility in use, and administration
of the environment for the development of AR mobile applications:
1.1. “accessibility” indicator means that the environment for the development of AR
mobile applications in the presence of the Internet should be accessible to anyone, as
well as anytime and anywhere,
2.2. “multilingualism” indicator implies the presence in the environment for the develop-
ment of AR mobile application support for different languages.
3.3. “ease of use and administration” indicator implies that the environment for the devel-
opment of AR mobile application should be easy to use, also provides convenience
and clarity in use, organization of access, and more,
4.4. “free of charge” indicator assumes the availability of a free tariff plan, which may
not be fully functional,
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Figure 1: Wikitude.
Figure 2: Vuforia.
5.5. “multiplatform” indicator characterizes the environment for the development of
AR mobile applications in terms of adaptation to use in different operating systems
(Windows, Android, iOs, etc.).
2. The functional criterion characterizes the environment for the development of AR mobile
application from a technical point of view, and provides for the presence of the following
indicators:
2.1. “recognition of different types of visual objects” indicator involves the recognition
of different types of visual objects such as cube, cylinder, plane,
124
Table 3
Overview of augmented reality SDK for iOS and Android [20]
SDK Description Sup- Software features Cost
ported
platforms
Maxst (see See [22]. Android, Offers two different tools for pat- The free ver-
figure 3) iOS, Win- tern and environment recognition, sion differs
dows, database creation online through from the paid
macOS. Tracking Manager. one only by
a watermark.
The PRO
version costs
$ 999.
Xzimg (see Represents Android, Xzimg Augmented Face recognizes A free trial is
figure 4) three products iOS, Win- and tracks faces with Unity; Xzimg only available
for working dows, Augmented Vision recognizes and for demon-
with applica- WebGL. tracks flat images from Unity; Xzimg stration
tions based Magic Face is designed to replace fa- (inverts color
on augmented cial features and apply makeup. and changes
reality: Aug- images). The
mented Face, paid version
Augmented costs € 1600.
Vision and
Magic Face.
NyARToolkit Japanese aug- Android, Used only for image identification Free.
(see figure 5) mented reality iOS. and tracking, easily integrated, but
library based English version not available.
on ARToolKit.
Metaio SDK Library for Windows, Uses OpenGL, SLAM methods for Free
creating aug- macOS, more accurate operation. Allows
mented reality iOS and developers to use content without
mobile applica- Android prior encryption to implement aug-
tions. mented reality in any application,
offering modules for tracking three-
dimensional objects, face recogni-
tion and tracking, infrared and laser
tracking, advanced camera calibra-
tion, and transparent optics. No of-
fline tools or server encryption are re-
quired to deploy 3D models and track
data.
2.2. “text and environment recognition” indicator characterizes whether the text and,
accordingly, the environment will be recognized,
2.3. “combination of image and QR code” indicator involves the integration of the QR-code
with the image,
2.4. “database creation” indicator characterizes whether it is possible to create databases
125
Figure 3: Maxst.
Figure 4: Xzimg.
in different ways.
Basic data on the indicators of the design criterion for each of the selected environments for
the development of AR mobile application contains a table 4.
Basic data on the indicators of the functional criterion for each of the selected environments
for the development of AR mobile application contains a table 5.
The generalized results are presented in table 6.
A review of alternatives based on the most important criteria showed that the most optimal
126
Figure 5: NyARToolkit.
Table 4
Design criterion of environments for AR application development and its indicators
Indicators
Service Manifestation of the criterion
1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5
W ikitude 0.7 1.45 1.7 0.3 1.5 40%
V uforia 2.5 2.25 2.45 2.15 2.8 100%
K udan 1.45 1.85 2.7 0.25 1.45 40%
M axst 2.1 1.45 2.25 1.45 2.2 60%
X zimg 0.3 1.3 2.5 0.15 2.45 40%
N yARToolkit 2.3 0.2 2.4 2.6 1.4 60%
M etaio SDK 2.3 1.55 2.4 2.6 2.1 100%
environment for developing a mobile application is Vuforia [24]. Vuforia SDK is a mobile
software that allows you to create augmented reality applications. It uses computer vision
technology to recognize and track flat images and simple 3D objects in real-time.
The ability to register images allows developers to locate and orient virtual objects, such as 3D
models and media content, in conjunction with real images when viewed through the cameras
of mobile devices. The virtual object is oriented on the real image so that the observer’s point of
view on the object is correlated with their point of view on the image to achieve the main effect
– the feeling that the virtual object is part of the real world. The developed augmented reality
application allows virtual 3D objects to be superimposed on the video stream in real-time.
The application starts by initializing the camera, requesting a video stream, and selecting a
frame from the stream. Next, you need to find the desired image on the selected frame, namely
the marker. If a marker is found, the software uses a mathematical apparatus to calculate the
camera’s position relative to that marker. When the camera position is determined, the graphic
model is displayed directly in that position. The graphic model is displayed on top of the video
and is attached to the marker. As a result, the information is superimposed on top of the frame.
127
Table 5
Functional criterion of environments for AR application development and its indicators
Indicators
Service Manifestation of the criterion
2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4
W ikitude 1.85 1 0 0.2 25%
V uforia 2.85 2.7 2.7 2.8 100%
K udan 2.5 0.4 0.6 2.35 50%
M axst 1.95 1.45 1.1 2.1 50%
X zimg 2.55 1.6 0.4 0.8 50%
N yARToolkit 1.8 0.55 0.45 0.3 25%
M etaio SDK 2.65 2.7 0.9 0.9 50%
Table 6
The results of selection of the environment for development of AR of the mobile application on manifes-
tation of all criteria are generalized
Criterion
Service
Design Functional
W ikitude 40% 25%
V uforia 100% 100%
K udan 40% 50%
M axst 60% 50%
X zimg 40% 50%
N yARToolkit 60% 25%
M etaio SDK 100% 50%
If the marker is not detected, the frame is re-selected from the video stream.
3. Conclusions
There is no single approach to the choice of a tool for the development of augmented reality
technologies, different authors characterize their choice based on the number of supported
platforms, ease of transferring code to different platforms, performance, and more.
Depending on the purpose of the application, you can use not only cross-platform engines
but also sets of development tools. Such kits allow you to speed up and simplify the process of
developing any program with elements of augmented reality. These advantages and disadvan-
tages will help beginners to choose the most convenient tool for developing augmented reality
technologies.
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