AR ideas to build with Stardust SDK
Here are some ideas you could build with Stardust visual positioning technology. Basic technical skills might help, such as Unity3D, but this shouldn’t stop anyone to start experimenting.
This article is the result of dozen online (and only a few face-to-face lately 😬) conversations and feedback we’re received since Stardust Alpha has been released. If you have other ideas, drop of a line at contact@neogoma.com or simply tag us on Linkedin or Twitter. If you want to test StardustSDK, register your free account here.
We encourage anyone, even non-technical people, to explore spatial computing. If it’s your first time encountering AR or 3D, it might be helpful to look into those 2 articles first (using our public app and getting started with the online editor)
The classics
1- AR navigation, AR wayfinding and AR pathfinding in transport hubs, hospitals, malls, campuses, museums, etc. There is a growing demand for such solutions as current 2D guiding technologies are often criticized by the physical space operators & visitors (take 2D touch screen information kiosks as an example, which helped visitors for a few meters until they’re lost again and can’t reach their destination). AR navigation works both indoor and outdoor and can be set up in a couple of hours. You can clone our repository on github or create your own assets for the visual path, some clients might also want a specific avatar to guide there visitors… like a virtual concierge!
2- Spatial information in theme parks, offices, lobbies, hotels, etc. The key here is improve current information methods (signs, billboards or staff) by anchoring information at world coordinate, in “space” (x,y,z coordinates obtained by StardustSDK and not only GPS’s longitude and latitude). A precise location and good UX will solve 99% of most visitors’ questions when arriving to a new place: what’s around me? What should I know that my eyes can’t necessary see? How far is each point of interest? Quick demo here as a reference.
3- Marketing tool for product launch, brand activation or brand engagement. AR navigation and anchored information are utilities, they simplify and solve clear pain points. However marketers have completely different pain points: how to attract new users/visitors? How to convert more into buyers? How to make existing ones more loyal? The answer: experiences. Experiences are memories associated to places and products. Coolhobo paved the way by demonstrating the future of retail. Stardust enables world-scale AR experiences that are memorable and shareable for visitors while being profitable for businesses.
4- Factory and warehouses trainings, maintenance checklists, the industry 4.0 is adopting AR at scale. Being to increase productivity or improve Health & Safety (HSE) initiatives, AR’s role in daily operations is growing. Large industrial firms, such as Boeing or Airbus, are making smart glasses their first choice, while smaller companies are going with mobile AR for its current availability to the mass and lower costs. It might not look sexy, but there’s plenty of cash in those traditional industries!
Speaking about safety, AR can be used to teach kids about reflexes to adopt during an emergency, like a floods:
5- Education. “A picture is worth a thousand words” they say. In a remote teaching world, AR has prove itself as an effective tool to engage an audience. With students now accustomed to AR tools, why not bringing them a nice surprise when they’ll be allowed to come back to the classrooms, but this time in an augmented classrooms? Walls can be turned into collaborative spaces, with persistent content from lessons to lessons.
The originals
6- Airbnb instructions when arriving to a new apartment. The host will map the flat then use the app and/or online editor to annotate the flat with check-in instructions. Guests will only have to relocate upon arrival (an information that can be automatically shared with the host). Nothing new since that idea is being around since 2017 (see Isil Uzum’s work below), but still waiting for a large-scale roll out.
7- A specific persona: blind or partially sighted people. We see tremendous value creation here, but the UX will certainly be challenging! A first UX fix could be to push for relocation at regular intervals and leverage depth sensors (from ARcore or using iPhone’s newly added Lidar) to detect obstacles while navigating. Voice command should also be implemented. Giving artificial vision to a blind person should be a priority, no matter how challenging!
8- AR scavenger hunt! From kids to adults, we all love those games, so why not making them available in your local streets (better pedestrian streets)? Location-based games, from arcades to Pokemon-Go, are always a great social experience. Leveraging the persistence feature, collectibles can be places at various locations and even be regularly updated — on spot with a phone or remotely with the online editor!
9- Find your friends! This an extended version of an AR navigation, adding a real-time information. It can be implemented in a crowded place where people struggle to explain where they are and where to meet up. Many mothers also, quite unfortunately, experienced this spine-chilling moment when they realized their kids got lost — in malls, theme parks or streets. The vast majority of the time, it turns out that kids just couldn’t explain where they were.
The challengers
10- Your city 10/50/100 years ago. Before starting to dream about foreign tourists flooding the streets of Paris, Tokyo or New York, how about offering an historical tour to the young generations? Something a bit more fun than the traditional (boring) city museums. Stardust technology helps designers to overlay accurately virtual buildings, people, cars, etc on the top of the current city. In a more dramatic way, imagine the city of Dresden after the 3-days bombing in 1945. AR will play a growing role in transmitting historical knowledge. This might require a lot of content creation work but would create a truly unique journey.
11- Real-time multiplayer AR games. When games are blending the physical world (and real pleasure associated to playing with friends) with a digital twin, the experience is bound to reach new levels of dopamine! Japanese companies (like Hado) already created an new league by merging AR with sports. Hong Kong based company SandboxVR is immersing friends and letting them cooperate in a 100% virtual world. However the mobile AR developer community hasn’t harvested the full the potential of games we all love and update them with AR. For example, an AR laser games or AR paintball in real-time and multiplayer would definitely get players excited.
The wow effect
Let’s face it: outside face-filters and virtual try-ons (being on your face, body and feet), AR hasn’t reached yet the adoption of other 2D technologies. But creators, early-adopters and creative designers are doing a fantastic job to evangelize end-users and make them see the potential of this unique technology. To only name one, kudos to @mechpil0t for being one of the smartest creators!
Apparently, the bigger, the better!
More ideas? Try StardustSDK — Join Alpha version!
We are currently under Alpha 0.5 Constellation version, meaning it’s free and will stay free if you register before the beta (planned for May 2021). All you need to do is to create an account at https://stardust.neogoma.com/ and clone our repo here or use the complementary mapping apps (iOS and Android).
