A platform for mobile augmented reality app creation without programming

Abstract

There are many application areas on using smartphone to access relevant information. By taking a picture from a physical object using a smartphone app, we use image recognition technology to provide a quick link between the physical object and its relevant information. However, developing smartphone apps is expensive and time consuming. We developed a platform called MIMAS AR Creator, which is a web based software platform for automatic creation of smartphone apps for multimedia access using pictures captured from the smartphone camera and its GPS location. This platform allows people without programming skill to create a smartphone app in a few minutes with existing multimedia contents, shorten more than 90% of the app development time. The digital contents can be web pages, videos, audios, images, or 3D graphics with or without animation etc. The platform can be used for mobile advertising and retail marketing, mobile learning and tour guide etc. For example, with the created app running, people can point their phone camera to a picture on newspaper, product brochure, or physical product to obtain more relevant information provided by the advertisers or vendors. They can also point the phone camera to a building or monument to retrieve relevant historical information.