Description & Youtube video

Using our application the user can (with a suitable device that has a camera) have an experience of augmented reality uing the target presents in the code.
All the scenes have sounds and animations. And if the targets are close to each other clouds with rain appears (with sounds).
There are two magazines that can be read using two bottons to flip pages. The animation of the pages (that is showed on the youtube video) is designed to give to the user the impression of a real page flipping.
There are also two placemats with two scenes, when a box or can target is placed onto a placemat, the scene sorrounding the box/can target disappears (only leaving the object that surrounds the target) and an information tab, specific to the box/can target, slides out from under the placemat. When the box/can is moved away, the info tab slides back under the placemat and the small scene reappears around the box/can.

Youtube video:
https://youtu.be/vzq2ZL-DFUs

PDF presentation of the project:
https://atrica2.people.uic.edu/Project1/ARBreakfastPresentation-PDF.pdf

Link to download the targets:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/14FE6LhIvh_T463TNw73p434rP2mqmYqf/view?usp=sharing

List of used models

Here there is the list of models we used:

Magazine 1

Cover picture from: https://www.pexels.com/photo/loaf-bread-708488/ Page 1: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_diet Page 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_Diet_Pyramid#/media/File:Harvard_food_pyramid.png Page 3: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/books/features/eat-your-way-to-better-brain-health/ Page 4: https://www.pexels.com/photo/assorted-fruits-on-white-ceramic-plate-1161682/

Magazine 2

Cover picture from: https://www.pexels.com/photo/astronomy-beautiful-clouds-constellation-355465/ Page 1 & 3: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/01/150128-big-bang-universe-supernova-astrophysics-health-space-ngbooktalk/ Page 2: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-solar-system-1142950/ Page 4: https://www.pexels.com/photo/yellow-sphere-illustration-39649/

Information pictures

This images are all made by us, they are shown when the user put the boxes or the cans on the placemat.

Can scene with floating islands in the space


1. SpaceMan from UnityAssetStore: Free Animated Space Man
2. Alien from 3DWarehouse: NIDRAXPOL-caracter-Siraz-mystery-pet-monster-male-and-magic-female-version
3. Space ship from 3DWarehouse: Star Trek Voyager
4. Mountain with waterfall made by us.
5. Five islands with the trees and clouds from UnityAssetStore: Low Poly's pack vol.2

Box scene with cemetery


1. Moon from 3DWarehouse: The Moon
2. Tree made by us.
3. Lantern, skeleton, graves and arc from UnityAssetStore: Stylized Cemetery Pack

Can scene with mountain and monster


1. Monster from UnityAssetStore.
2. Mountain made by us.
3. Clouds from UnityAssetStore: Low Poly's pack vol.2.
4. Rocks from UnityAssetStore: Stylized Crystal

Can scene with planets and shuttle


1. Shuttle from 3DWarehouse: Space Shuttle Atlantis.
2. SpaceMan from UnityAssetStore: Stylized Astronaut.
3. Saturn made by us.
4. Moon from 3DWarehouse: The Moon.

Box in Egypt


1. Mask made by us.
2. Bird from UnityAssetStore: Free Low Polygon_Animal.
3. Four desert monuments from UnityAssetStore: Desert kits 64 Sample
4. Three plants from UnityAssetStore: Polygon Desert Pack.

Placemat with breakfast


1. Apple made by us.
2. Cup from 3DWarehouse.
3. Bowl made by us.
4. Fork from 3DWarehouse.
5. Image from 3DWarehouse.

Box with house


1. Turtle made by us.
2. Trees from UnityAssetStore: Simple City pack plain.
3. House from UnityAssetStore: Simple City pack plain.
4. Street lamp from UnityAssetStore: Simple City pack plain.
5. Street from UnityAssetStore: Simple City pack plain.

Box in a forest


1. Big mushroom made by us.
2. Little mushroom made by us.
3. Bird from UnityAssetStore: Low Poly 2
4. Trees from UnityAssetStore: Hand Painted Nature Kit LITE
5. Rock from UnityAssetStore: Hand Painted Nature Kit LITE
6. Squirrel from UnityAssetStore: Low Poly 2

Placemat with sea


1. Plate & egg made by us.
2. Sea image from Pexel.com
3. Man from 3DWarehouse: 3D Mannequin 2.
4. Trees and rockelephant LowPoly Vegetation Season Pack Lite
5. Mountain from UnityAssetStore: LowPoly Vegetation Season Pack Lite

Savannah


1. Baobab tree with eyes made by us.
2. Elephant from UnityAssetStore: Elephant Cartoon
3. Rocks from UnityAssetStore: Elephant Cartoon
4. Plants and desert from UnityAssetStore: Elephant Cartoon

Our Target

We add these target to the set given.
The can is made with photos takes by us and the images for the two boxes are taken from: www.pexels.com

List of sounds

All the audio clips used in the project are taken from the site: http://soundbible.com/
1. Thunderstorm.mp3
2. Star Wars Dogfight-SoundBible.com-340586406.mp3
3. Squirrel.mp3
4. Shorebirds Talking On Beach-SoundBible.com-1977029266.mp3
5. Red Tailed Hawk-SoundBible.com-1377146805.mp3
6. MonsterGrowl.mp3
7. Apollo Moon Landing-SoundBible.com-124687295.mp3
8. Pouring Bowl Cereal-SoundBible.com-447772767.mp3
9. Bats_in_Cave-Mike_Koenig-1902240953.mp3
10. Elephant Trumpeting-SoundBible.com-1343370148.mp3

Link at the code

Our code can be downloaded at this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lNPT64uJuFKyOfV2_6e44AiQ8PKJ4GJq/view?usp=sharing

Discussion about this technology

In this project we have used the augmented reality to transform a simple breakfast in an exciting experience thanks to the technology provided by the game engine Unity3D and the AR SDK provided by Vuforia.

Nowadays people are alienated while eating at breakfast, they think that it is only a boring and time-consuming thing. Our society is focused on being productive and on making the most of our time during the day. In this scenario the meals are the first things that we neglect, for example more and more people are used to eat for breakfast not healthy food that can be eaten more quickly, and they look at their smartphone while there are eating in order to improve their multitasking and make more things at the same time, this leads to not enjoy the meal.

Our application focuses on making the breakfast more attractive using the augmented reality technology. The application uses an AR-ready device to show virtual objects and texture over the real one on the table used for the breakfast, in this way it creates a mixed world that is more attractive for the user then the usual one in order to focus his attention on the meal and on the food that he is eating.

The AR-ready device can be a webcam connected to a computer or, better, a smartphone. These kinds of devices are good because everyone has them, but the potential of this technology would be exploited to the maximum using a pair of AR glasses (like the Google Glasses or a device like the Microsoft HoloLens).

Whatever the device used, the application will show a mixed world where the texture of the boxes or of the can are replaced by some virtual scenes with virtual animated objects around the real ones. In this way the user is more attracted by the food he is eating, and the meal will become a funny experience and not only a waste of time.

Another purpose of our application is to inform people of what they are eating. Many people are not used to read the nutrition information of what they eat. In our application, if you put a box of a food you are eating or a can of your drink near your placemat then a virtual page will appear on your table showing you all the nutrition information of that food/drink. In this way the user will be more willing to read them. People are amazed and attracted from virtual objects and in particular when they appear in the real world in augmented reality so, probably, this way to show this information will be more effective that the traditional one.

Furthermore, the application shows in the real world two virtual magazines over their respective targets. In our model, the two magazines have two different functions. One has the purpose to attract the user to read information about a healthy diet (the Mediterranean one), the other magazine contains information about the space exploration and its purpose is to attract the user to learn more about topics inherent to some of the virtual scenes of the breakfast.

This technology can be applied not only at the breakfast but also to other meal during the day. However, it is more suitable for meal like breakfast and for the snacks during the day because in these cases you (usually) eat something ready-made and so you have the boxes of these foods in front of you on the table (instead of a cooked dish). Cooked dishes are more difficult to recognize and to track and it is almost impossible to retrieve every time the different nutrition information of them.

This technology can be also applied in other different situations with only some little changes. Suitable situations are, for example, decorative objects in the houses that can be simple targets that can become whatever the user want and that can show whatever information in an augmented reality world.