SculptAR was an application created for the interaction of users with virtual objects to build art sculptures using AR. It was developed as submission to the IEEE 3DUI Contest 2017. Our approach could be used with any device equipped with a camera to display virtual elements on its screen, where the user could interact by tapping on the display. SculptAR based itself on AR markers (initially from the ARToolkit framework, later we migrated to Vuforia) to provide a physical reference for tracking camera pose and allowing to register virtual elements.
There were three different sets of markers that defined which type of sculpture can be created: the Particle System mode, composed of smoke, spark, spray and flare particles, which allows parameter modifications; a Palm Tree mode, which contained LEGO-styled blocks and allowed the creation of a palm tree – this set allowed us to explore the use of a snapping feature, just like real-world LEGOs work; and a mode that allowed the creation of a Fried sculpture. The interface was designed to be simple and consistent in a way that there was a general flow of actions: the user selects a tool, aims at an object with a pointer and taps the screen to perform the operation.
Proceedings Articles
SculptAR: An augmented reality interaction system Proceedings Article
In: IEEE Symposium on 3D User Interfaces (3DUI), pp. 260–261, 2017.