Geo-Based Memory Book: Augmented Reality Application for Content Sharing
About
Online photo sharing is one of the most common activities being carried out. We decided to improve this experience by adding Augmented Reality perspective to it and envisioned an application that displays pictures in 3D space, based on the location they were captured.
Description
In this project we integrated concepts of Augmented Reality and social networking to enhance photo viewing experience. Our application allows users to connect with friends by sharing photographs at a location. These pictures are placed on that geo-location for others to see. Multiple photos are aggregated / clustered in the form of an album. When the users come close to the geo-location, the album becomes visible.
Design Consideration
In Augmented Reality applications the content is scattered in the user’s environment and is visible only through the camera view of the phone. This requires the users to focus on the screen while interacting which can be dangerous, particularly, if the user has to walk around for finding shared pictures. To avoid this we leveraged the phone’s orientation sensors for content navigation.
Prototype
We explored different techniques and environments for creating an experience similar to navigating through a gallery. The basic navigation is achieved without any screen interactions/inputs from the user. The user can move through the gallery by simply tilting the phone. The speed of navigation can be controlled by increasing and decreasing the tilt angle. To stop and look at a particular picture the user just has to turn the phone sideways. The user can zoom in on an image by single tap like a picture by double tap.
