Augmented Reality (AR) applications are increasingly finding their way into our lives. Whether in the consumer segment or in business applications, with AR complex products and content can be presented and communicated in a clear and understandable way.
According to Gartner, AR will be mature in 5 - 10 years and used in our daily lives (see also: Gartner article).
Thoughts on the applicability of the technology in product development can be found in this BLOG
However, AR applications for marketing and sales in the communication of products have a big problem:
Where does the 3D data for the AR models come from?
Although mobile devices are becoming more and more powerful, they are not yet able to process high-resolution data as they come from CAD systems. A good and effective 3D data preparation is necessary in order to present the products performant and yet visually appealing.
Currently there are a few projects that try to calculate the large 3D models on very powerful mainframes and send them as video stream to the low-performance mobile devices. The question is only whether, with the expected distribution of AR content, the capacities are available in data centers and at what cost? Economically and ecologically...
In addition to these challenges, there are others that also influence the initial process of data preparation.
With our further article (in german) about a fictitious project we want to shed light on how data can be prepared and how it can become a successful project.