A popular technology preview on Autodesk Labs is Augmented Reality for Showcase.
// Download Augmented Reality for Showcase
The add-on works with Showcase 2013 or Showcase Professional 2013. Basically it works like this:
- You prepare your virtual object in Showcase (e.g. set infinite background, group objects).
- You associate a supplied marker (jpg file) with your virtual object.
- You scale the virtual object.
- You print a supplied marker (PDF) and place it in the real world.
- You enable the plug-in, point your web camera at the printed marker, and voila - Showcase displays what the camera sees augmented with your virtual object in place of the printed marker.
The original technology preview expired on January 31. The current one will run until April 30. In addition to extending the preview period, based on your feedback, this update includes:
- The performance is almost doubled when there is only one marker being tracked.
- The furthest tracking distance (where the marker is still recognized) is increased by about 10%.
- The technology preview supports Showcase 2013 including SP4.
- The model's drift has been reduced.
- Some defects were corrected.
The update was posted on January 30. An even newer update with a fix for a Pause problem was posted on February 1. That's how we roll. So please give this a try and let us know what you think. There are a variety of ways to provide feedback.
Augmentation is alive in the lab.