ARToolKit is an open-source computer tracking library for creation of strong

augmented reality Augmented reality (AR) is an interactive experience that combines the real world and computer-generated content. The content can span multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory and olfactory. AR can be de ...

applications that overlay virtual imagery on the real world. Currently, it is maintained as an open-source project hosted on GitHub. ARToolKit is a very widely used AR tracking library with over 160,000 downloads on its last public release in 2004. In order to create strong augmented reality, it uses video tracking capabilities that calculate the real camera position and orientation relative to square physical markers or natural feature markers in real time. Once the real camera position is known a virtual camera can be positioned at the same point and 3D computer graphics models drawn exactly overlaid on the real marker. So ARToolKit solves two of the key problems in Augmented Reality; viewpoint tracking and virtual object interaction. ARToolKit was originally developed by

Hirokazu Kato Hirokazu is a masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Hirokazu can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: *, "vast, harmony" *, "command, one" *, "wide, harmony" *, "abundant, harmony" *, "wide, one" *, "vast, many" *, ...

of Nara Institute of Science and Technology in 1999 and was released by the University of Washington HIT Lab. In 2001 ARToolWorks was incorporated, and v1.0 of the open-source version of ARToolKit was released through the HIT Lab. ARToolKit was one of the first AR SDKs for mobile, seen running first on Symbian in 2005, then iOS with the iPhone 3G in 2008, and finally Android as early as 2010 with a professional version by ARToolWorks later in 2011. ARToolKit was acquired by

DAQRI DAQRI was an American augmented reality company headquartered in Los Angeles, CA. As of September 13, 2019 the company has been reported to have gone out of business. The company’s primary product was an augmented reality wearable technology ...

and re-released open-source starting at version 5.2 on May 13, 2015, including all of the features that were previously only available in the professional licensed version. Among these features are mobile support and natural feature tracking. ARToolKitPlus (sometimes written "ARToolKit+") is intended to be a successor to the ARToolKit library that is optimized for mobile devices. ARToolKit was written in C; ARToolKit+ was ported it to C++ to make it easier to maintain, and has a new class-based (C++) API that is intended to be easier-to-use. Ben Vaughan and Phil Lamb, the former CEO and CTO of ARToolworks, created artoolkitX to ensure that the software is developed and maintained and the ARToolKit community continues to be supported. artoolkitX is supported by Realmax Inc, a Chinese AR company that develops AR hardware and software.

Features

* Single-camera or stereo-camera (camera position/orientation tracking). * Tracking of simple black squares (any square marker patterns). * Tracking of planar images (natural feature markers). * Camera calibration, optical stereo calibration, square marker generation, and natural feature marker generation utilities. * Plugins for Unity and

OpenSceneGraph OpenSceneGraph is an open-source 3D graphics application programming interface (library or framework), used by application developers in fields such as visual simulation, computer games, virtual reality, scientific visualization and modeling. ...

. * Optical head-mounted display support. * Free and open source software. * Fast enough for real time AR applications.

Operating systems

The current version of ARToolKit supports

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

, Mac OS X, Linux, iOS, and

Android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...

platforms. Other versions of ARToolKit have also been ported to

Symbian Symbian is a discontinued mobile operating system A mobile operating system is an operating system for mobile phones, tablets, smartwatches, smartglasses, or other non-laptop personal mobile computing devices. While computers such as typic ...

, and Windows Phone to support mobile AR applications. ARToolKit is also available as a plugin for the Unity

game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games and generally includes relevant libraries and support programs. The "engine" terminology is similar to the term "software engine" used in the software i ...

for example to align a virtual camera within Unity with a real-world camera relative to a tracked marker target and taking care of communicating with the camera. The plugin supports Unity on OS X, Unity on Windows, Unity on Android, and Unity on iOS.

Features

Operating systems

See also

References

External links