As Papervision is pretty much a dead project, I’ve been asked increasingly often to update the parts of FLARManager that use other frameworks. That’s the major focus of this release, but there are some other changes too.

FLARManager v1.1 can now stabilize tracking based on the user scenario you’re targeting. FLARManager.markerMode and FLARManager.patternMode allow more control over the amount of markers and patterns your application will track, and FLARCameraSource.activityThreshold is better integrated into FLARManager’s core to allow performance gains for stationary markers.

Of course, all of this is reflected in updated ASDoc-style documentation, and is documented here as well. And if you don’t want to take the time to understand what I’m talking about, just roll with the defaults and everything will be peachy.

As usual, you can get it via svn/download. Instructions here.

If you like what you see here, please consider flipping a penny or two my way:
donate to FLARManager

Also, in case you missed the news — ARToolworks is now hosting a FLARManager forum here. Please post support questions there for better tracking and archival. And in other communication news, I’m now on the twitters…look out for quickies about FLARManager, Flash, and all good things tech and design.

More on v1.1 after the jump…

what’s new

[corrected support for non-4:3 aspect ratios for all frameworks]
Previous to v1.1, FLARManager did not correctly support non-4:3 aspect ratios for any framework except Papervision. This is now corrected for all frameworks supported by FLARManager — go 16:9, 1:2, whatever floats your boat. The only exception — native Flash 3D still has a bit of trouble with some non-4:3 aspect ratios.

Note, this required a change to NyARParam.as, in the FLARToolkit source. It is included in the FLARManager download and SVN, though, so no need to think twice about it.

[support for Alternativa3D v7]
As always, Makc the Great comes to the rescue, this time with support for the flash-native, free version (v7, demo version) of Alternativa3D.

[finer control over markers and patterns]
This one’s a bit complex, but I’m hoping it allows for better performance and control, by allowing developers to tailor their FLARManager app to the intended user experience. The basic idea is that you can specify whether you want to track multiple markers per pattern or just one per pattern, and whether to differentiate between patterns or not. this allows, for example:

• true single-marker mode, by setting both markerMode and patternMode to SINGLE;
• true multi-marker mode, which is how FLARManager used to function, by setting both to MULTI;
• a new default mode for FLARManager, which is markerMode=SINGLE and patternMode=MULTI.

The new default mode should help somewhat with flickering, by avoiding any distance calculation errors that could cause FLARManager to incorrectly think a marker was removed. Check the docs page for more detailed info.

[examples moved to Away3D]
As mentioned above, Papervision3D no longer seems to be a favored option for 3D development in Flash Player, so I’ve ported all examples that used it to Away3D. However, I added an Away3D Collada example instead of replacing the PV3D version, as my knowledge of using Collada in Away3D is incomplete. Any suggestions for improving the Away3D example (specifically around loading the collada files at runtime rather than embedding) are most welcome.

[better integration of activityThreshold]
A previous sub-release introduced FLARCameraSource.activityThreshold, but it was a quick implementation of the idea. Now, FLARManager does not run the tracking engine unless the source has changed more than activityThreshold, allowing much better performance for stationary markers.

Thanks to Makc, FLARManager now supports the latest (free) version of Alternativa3D. As of the time of writing, this means Alternativa3D version 7.6.0. The latest source in my SVN /trunk can be checked out as described here.

Also, I mentioned to ARToolworks that it’s not ideal for FLARManager users to have to wade through comments on previous posts to get support, and they offered to set up a forum specifically for FLARManager. I’m going to start forwarding questions posted on this site to the ARToolworks/FLARManager forum from now on. You can find the new forum here.

Of course, the FLARToolkit forum still exists as well, and I’ll keep my eye on both. Where should you post? Well, if your question is FLARManager-specific, better to post on the ARToolworks forum, as their staff will be helping me answer questions. If your question is more about FLARToolkit, stick with the FLARToolkit forum. Either way, your questions will be heard.

v1.0.4 mainly just updates Away3D from 3.3.4 to 3.6.0, which uses the native flash.geom.Matrix3D instead of MatrixAway3D. This update also includes a new Away3D SWC.

As usual, you can get it via svn/download. Instructions here.

If you like what you see here, please consider flipping a penny or two my way:
donate to FLARManager

Note: Away3D v3.3.4 is no longer supported by FLARManager; if you need support for it, use FLARManager v1.0.3 or earlier.

This minor release, v1.0.3, fixes that problem. There’s not much else new here, except a couple minor bug fixes. As always, you can download via SVN or via the download link on the FLARManager page. You no longer have to get the flare* libraries to compile FLARManager; hope this helps all of you who’ve been struggling with CLibInit.

Oh! And. HAPPY HALLOWEEN

The trick, in short:
only send the camera source to FLARToolkit while there is noticeable motion.
The result:
less jitter when the marker is held still in front of the camera.

To implement in FLARManager:
Download the latest from svn, particularly FLARManager.as, FLARConfigLoader.as, and FLARCameraSource.as. the changes will automatically take effect.

To tweak the value, set activityThreshold within the <flarSourceSettings> element in flarConfig.xml. Set higher to further reduce jitter in stationary markers, and set lower to allow more freedom of motion with stationary markers.

Enjoy!

However, this means that getting flare*tracker and flare*NFT projects running requires a bit more work. As such, I’ve reverted the examples and tutorials to use FLARToolkit, which I can distribute along with FLARManager, and also created this page to describe, in-depth, how to implement the various tracking engines that FLARManager supports.

Please take a moment to download the latest version of FLARManager and the current evaluation SDKs for flare*tracker and flare*NFT to ensure you’re up-to-date. And feel free to pester me with questions (as comments, below) about setting up your projects — I need your help to get the documentation as clear as possible.

Hello folks. I’m happy to announce that FLARManager is finally all growed-up!

FLARManager v1.0 has been quite a while in the making, especially the movement from v0.7. This is due to a number of factors; one of these has been working out the final details, between ARToolworks and Imagination, of flare*tracker and flare*NFT integration, which i first previewed in this blog post. But the major factor is the amount of restructuring that has gone into FLARManager.

Why restructure? FLARManager is now able to work with any tracking library, just as it’s able to work with any 3D framework. And switching between tracking libraries is as simple as this:

 
FLARToolkit:
new FLARManager("flarConfig.xml", new FlarToolkitManager(), this.stage);
flare*tracker:
new FLARManager("flarConfig.xml", new FlareManager(), this.stage);
flare*NFT:
new FLARManager("flarConfig.xml", new FlareNFTManager(), this.stage);

 
Obviously, the freedom given to application developers, creatives, and agencies by natural feature-tracking is the biggest element of this release to be excited about. But the restructuring goes deeper — FLARManager can now function as a link between *any* tracking library and *any* 3D framework. Developers are no longer bound to decisions based on limited availability or documentation; they are free to choose the tools that work best for them. (Some Californian CEOs would do well to pursue similar goals.)

You can get FLARManager version 1.0 here.

So what else is new about v1.0? A quick rundown beyond the jump…

what’s new

[support for multiple tracking libraries]
As mentioned above, FLARManager has a new structure that grants it compatibility with any number of tracking libraries. Currently, support exists for flare*tracker, flare*NFT, and FLARToolkit (v2.5.4). The classes used to make the connection between FLARManager and these tracking libraries live in the flar.tracker package, and FLARManager should now be instantiated with one of these tracker managers as a parameter.

Note: if you’re using flare*tracker or flare*NFT, you must have the .lic license files in the same folder as your swfs. These files are included in the FLARManager distro, in the /bin-debug/ folder. These are evaluation versions of the flare* licenses, and tracking stops functioning after one minute. Also, you must include the flare* .swc files in the /libs/ folder in order to compile. If you see any errors referring to CLibInit, the flare* .swc files are not on your build path and are not getting compiled.

Stay tuned for support for more tracking libraries in the future…

[native flash 3D]
Thanks to nutsu of libspark, FLARManager finally supports output to native Flash 3D. This is particularly useful for applications that just want to display a plane over the detected target — no more need to map a texture to a plane in a 3D engine. Think images, video, swfs. In the palm of your users’ hands.

[full documentation]
All of the changes did not go undocumented. Full html documentation of FLARManager’s source is available in ASDoc format (thanks to Grant Skinner’s handy ASDocr tool).

Additionally, all examples and tutorials are updated, both in the code and online. Online walkthroughs are available via the FLARMANAGER link in the nav bar above.

[alternative interface examples]
For my talk at FITC this spring, I put together a series of examples that show how markers can be used to craft alternative interfaces for games, digital tools, and artistic experiences. These can be found in the /apps package, and launched via the application class FLARManagerAppLauncher.as, both included in the FLARManager distro.

[support for FLARToolkit 2.5.4]
FLARManager v1.0 offers compatibility with the latest release of FLARToolkit, v2.5.4, and most of the goodies it provides. Support for ID-markers will follow in a later release.

[full-resolution video]
The default video resolution is now 640×480 in flarConfig.xml. This takes advantage of flare*tracker and flare*NFT’s superior framerate, and also works quite well with the recent improvements in FLARToolkit.

[flar.camera package]
Camera setup for various 3D frameworks is now abstracted into classes within the flar.camera package, which simplifies scene setup in application code. Each class within the flar.camera package sets up the projection matrix for a given 3D framework, regardless of the selected tracking library.

what’s missing

Unfortunately, there are still a few things that are not complete. The major items yet to complete include:

• FLARManager does not yet provide compatibility between flare* and Away3D/Lite, Sandy3D, or Alternativa3D.
• FLARToolkit 2.5.4 introduced support for ID-markers, but this feature is not yet available via FLARManager.

the newest version of FLARManager, which will be released shortly, abstracts the marker-tracking library out from the marker management framework (FLARManager’s core).

what does this mean?

in short, it means that FLARManager can now easily be updated to support any flash-based marker-tracking library. FLARToolkit (currently at v2.5.3) is the most obvious player, and FLARManager continues to support FLARToolkit. additionally, the newest version FLARManager will support flare*tracker and flare*NFT.

what are flare*tracker and flare*NFT?

[flare*tracker]
flare*tracker is a marker tracking engine much like FLARToolkit, and applies many of the same concepts. however, it is written completely from scratch in Alchemy, so it can achieve framerates up to 45+ fps. also, it supports six different marker types, including BCH ID-markers (with marker id encoded directly into the marker pattern, so no need to load pattern files and no speed penalty for many different patterns) and Data Matrix markers (with a url encoded into the marker pattern).

[flare*NFT]
flare*NFT is a ‘natural feature tracking’ engine, which means that it can track any printed image. not just square markers with black borders. any 2D image, from a magazine cover to a product box to a photograph, can be tracked. and since flare*NFT is also based on ARToolkitPlus, and written in Alchemy, it also shows great performance, generally around 30+ fps.

check out the following videos to see the difference between the three engines. and stay tuned for the release…
 
 

FLARManager – FLARToolkit 2.5.2. the FLARManager we all know and love.
 
 

FLARManager – flare. note the ID-marker, and framerates averaging in the 35-40fps range.
 
 

FLARManager – flareNFT. natural feature tracking made easy. blur? occlusion? glare? no problem.

version 0.7 has been a long time coming; a lot of the changes in this update have been in SVN for months. just been too busy too wrap them up into an update.

download here:
http://words.transmote.com/wp/flarmanager/

also! you know i do it all for the love. but love don’t pay the bills. please consider dropping a dime my way to help me continue working on FLARManager so i can put food in my cat’s bowl.

what is this?

FLARManager is a lightweight framework that makes it easier to build FLARToolkit augmented reality applications for Flash. it is compatible with a variety of 3D engines, and provides a more robust event-based system for managing marker addition, update, and removal. it supports detection and management of multiple patterns, and multiple markers of a given pattern.

what’s new this time around?

[marker motion analysis]
FLARManager now executes some simple analysis of the motion of each tracked marker. this information is used to improve tracking of fast-moving markers by extrapolating their position after they are lost by FLARToolkit, and is used to reduce model jitter by varying the amount of smoothing applied depending on marker speed. it could also be used, for example, to create simple gestural marker-based interfaces.
 
[FLARToolkit update and SVN restructure]
version 0.7 brings FLARManager more in line with the current state of the FLARToolkit repository, with branches for FTK 1.0.0 and FTK 2.5.1. the zipped distro for FLARManager 0.7 contains FLARToolkit 2.5.1; if you’re checking out via SVN and want the latest stable build, i recommend you use the FTK 2.5.1 branch.

 

adaptive smoothing

the amount of smoothing applied to marker motion now varies depending on the amount of motion. slow-moving markers are smoothed more, helping to ease jitter on near-stationary markers, while faster-moving markers are smoothed less, in order to maintain responsiveness at higher speeds.

developers can manipulate adaptive smoothing by setting FLARManager.adaptiveSmoothingCenter. this can also be set via flarConfig.xml, as an attribute of the <flarManagerSettings> element. smoothing at a marker speed of FLARManager.adaptiveSmoothingCenter is equal to FLARManager.smoothing. set FLARManager.adaptiveSmoothingCenter to 0 to turn adaptive smoothing off.
 
 

marker extrapolation

with marker extrapolation, fast-moving markers that are lost by FLARToolkit due to blur can continue their motion along the same speed and direction without being reported as removed. marker extrapolation continues until the marker is picked back up by FLARToolkit, or FLARManager.markerRemovalDelay frames have expired.

FLARManager.markerExtrapolation is true by default, enabling marker extrapolation; set to false to disable. this can also be set via flarConfig.xml, as an attribute of the <flarManagerSettings> element.
 
 

marker motion data

in order to accomplish adaptive smoothing and marker extrapolation, FLARManager needs to calculate information about marker motion. this information is made available to application developers for their own use, and includes:

• FLARMarker.velocity
• FLARMarker.motionSpeed2D
• FLARMarker.motionDirection2D
• FLARMarker.rotationSpeedX/Y/Z

see the asdoc comments (and the FLARManager API Documentation, once i get a chance to update it) for information on these new properties.
 
 

variable-width marker border support

FLARToolkit’s support for markers with border widths wider or thinner than 50% of the total marker width is now exposed to FLARManager. set via the patternToBorderRatio attribute of the <patterns> element in flarConfig.xml. the value is the percentage of the total marker width/height that the pattern consumes, so a pattern with 25% border and 75% pattern would require a value of "75".

FLARToolkit’s support for variable-border width markers seems to max out around 80% / 20%.

unfortunately, FLARToolkit 2.5.1 no longer supports this feature. FLARToolkit 2.5.2 will support it, and FLARManager will target FTK 2.5.2 once it is released. the FLARManager_FTK_1_0_0 branch still supports this feature.
 
 

support for inverted markers

FLARManager can now recognize markers with white borders, instead of just black borders. set via FLARManager.inverted or via flarConfig.xml, as an attribute of the <flarManagerSettings> element.

thanks to jim alliban and lee brimelow for the idea, and the PixelBender shader that makes this possible.
 
 

under-the-hood improvements and changes

• flarConfig.xml loading and parsing now lives in FLARManagerConfigLoader.as, cleaning up FLARManager.as a bit.
• DrunkHistogramThresholdAdapter.as is now the default threshold adapter (shout out to matt reynolds for the suggestion). as such,

adaptiveThresholding, adaptiveThresholdingSpeed, and adaptiveThresholdingBias have been removed.

• display mirroring now defaults to true.

http://www.ardevcamp.org/

my session will address the web component of AR, and will tie in with discussions on mobile AR, standards, experience design, and more. i believe (free!) registration is still open, on the site above. stop by!