30A Underpass Augmented Reality (XR) iOS App
The new pedestrian underpass in Inlet Beach, Florida features murals by ten local artists coordinated by the Cultural Arts Alliance.
This experimental augmented reality iOS app captures that experience in a couple of ways and allows someone to experience it anywhere in the world on an iPhone.
What is it?
I have been studying digital experiences and augmented reality for a while, and I was keeping an eye out for a subject to create a project with. One night, I visited the 30a underpass, absolutely loved it! That's when I had the idea: what if this was a digital experience? You could visit the underpass from anywhere in the world.
So it began: an artist and mural centric digital experience that was free to access and educational in nature, sharing information about the artists, murals, and underpass project.
What did I do?
I used photogrammetry methods to capture the underpass with over 800 photos. I initially recreated a full-size replica that you could walk through in augmented reality (point cloud seen below).
It was nice, but this was a study project, so I had to push the idea further into more interactivity.
I asked myself these questions: what if this is an archival tool for the murals? Further, what if this was the future, and we wanted to preserve this art? We would excavate it, cut it into slices, and present it in a gallery.
So, I created an interactive digital experience around that concept. I modeled and textured the murals as individual slices.
Collector's Gallery
I also made this little gallery for all of the desktop models, but since you can interact with the desktop models individually in their own AR session I would probably cut this gallery from the final version. Plus, to keep the fidelity needed on each model, the poly count when viewed in full is kind of pushing the recommended limits. Even though it mostly displays fine.
User interface
Here's a look at the app design itself. Kept it simple, though the AR session buttons do have a gyro driven holographic-ish effect.
How did I get here?
I didn't realize it at the start of this project, but a project this involved actually requires you to wrap it with a full application.
So, when I started developing the iOS app to simply test this project, that's when it dawned on me that this could be a neat marketing tool for the underpass project and artists.
What's next?
Well, I wasn't planning to do anything with this project. It was just something for me to learn and burn with. However, I thought the end result turned out kind of cool. So, I will pass it along to the Cultural Arts Alliance to offer it as a gift or donation free of charge.
The app is currently live in beta on iPhone. If you would like to test it out, sign up below, and if approved I will send you the TestFlight information for download.
I will be writing a couple of blogs at a later time about some of the things I learned with this project as well.
The above 3d model is an example of what I call the Collector's Desktop Models. This beautiful mural was painted by the talented Katherine Boggs
Dear Artists,
You can download your Collector's Desktop Model below. The model is yours, and you may do anything you'd like to do with it.
Collector's Desktop Model download:
Updates:
Update: I sent emails to the Cultural Arts Alliance team to see if they might be interested in teaming up.
Update: I have reached out twice to the Cultural Arts Alliance with no response. Which is somewhat disappointing, but on to the next project we go!
If you are an artist involved with the project and would like to see us team up on this app, please contact your favorite person at the CAA and let them know. I am offering this free of cost.
The app is still in beta. If you would like to play around with it, fill out the beta testing form below.
