Writing augmented reality applications using JSARToolKit

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Writing augmented reality applications using JSARToolKit

How JSARToolKit fits together

JSARToolKit is an augmented reality library for JavaScript, open source under the GPL. It is a direct port of the Flash FLARToolKit, which the author built for the Mozilla Remixing Reality demo. FLARToolKit is itself a port of the Java NyARToolKit, and NyARToolKit derives from the C ARToolKit.

The library analyses canvas elements and returns a list of AR markers found in the image together with their transformation matrices. Rendering the result is left to a 3D library: pass the transformation matrix in so your object is transformed by it, draw the video frame into the WebGL scene, then draw the object on top.

Because the analysis reads pixels back off the canvas, the image must come from the same origin as the page or be served with CORS. Setting the crossOrigin property on the image or video element to '' or 'anonymous' is enough to satisfy the same-origin policy.

To track video, draw each video frame onto a canvas and hand that canvas to JSARToolKit. Modern JavaScript engines are fast enough to run this in realtime at 640x480, though larger frames take longer to process. 320x240 is a reasonable default size; choose 640x480 if you expect small markers or several of them at once.

Wiring up the detector

The API has a Java-like shape, so some ceremony is required. A detector object operates on a raster object, and a camera parameter object sits between the two, transforming raster coordinates into camera coordinates. Marker data is read out by iterating the detector's results and copying their transformation matrices into your own code.

// Create a RGB raster object for the 2D canvas.
// JSARToolKit uses raster objects to read image data.
// Note that you need to set canvas.changed = true on every frame.
var raster = new NyARRgbRaster_Canvas2D(canvas);

// FLARParam is the thing used by FLARToolKit to set camera parameters.
// Here we create a FLARParam for images with 320x240 pixel dimensions.
var param = new FLARParam(320, 240);

// The FLARMultiIdMarkerDetector is the actual detection engine for marker detection.
// It detects multiple ID markers. ID markers are special markers that encode a number.
var detector = new FLARMultiIdMarkerDetector(param, 120);

// For tracking video set continue mode to true. In continue mode, the detector
// tracks markers across multiple frames.
detector.setContinueMode(true);

// Copy the camera perspective matrix from the FLARParam to the WebGL library camera matrix.
// The second and third parameters determine the zNear and zFar planes for the perspective matrix.
param.copyCameraMatrix(display.camera.perspectiveMatrix, 10, 10000);

Feeding it video

Webcam input comes from WebRTC's getUserMedia API. Since these APIs are still emerging, feature detection is required. For pre-recorded clips, set the source attribute of the video element to the video URL; for still-image marker detection, an image element serves the same purpose.

var video = document.createElement('video');
video.width = 320;
video.height = 240;

var getUserMedia = function(t, onsuccess, onerror) {
  if (navigator.getUserMedia) {
    return navigator.getUserMedia(t, onsuccess, onerror);
  } else if (navigator.webkitGetUserMedia) {
    return navigator.webkitGetUserMedia(t, onsuccess, onerror);
  } else if (navigator.mozGetUserMedia) {
    return navigator.mozGetUserMedia(t, onsuccess, onerror);
  } else if (navigator.msGetUserMedia) {
    return navigator.msGetUserMedia(t, onsuccess, onerror);
  } else {
    onerror(new Error("No getUserMedia implementation found."));
  }
};

var URL = window.URL || window.webkitURL;
var createObjectURL = URL.createObjectURL || webkitURL.createObjectURL;
if (!createObjectURL) {
  throw new Error("URL.createObjectURL not found.");
}

getUserMedia({'video': true},
  function(stream) {
    var url = createObjectURL(stream);
    video.src = url;
  },
  function(error) {
    alert("Couldn't access webcam.");
  }
);

Marker detection and matrix output

With the detector running, each frame goes through two steps: draw the image onto the raster object's canvas, then run the detector on the raster object. The detector returns how many markers it found.

// Draw the video frame to the raster canvas, scaled to 320x240.
canvas.getContext('2d').drawImage(video, 0, 0, 320, 240);

// Tell the raster object that the underlying canvas has changed.
canvas.changed = true;

// Do marker detection by using the detector object on the raster object.
// The threshold parameter determines the threshold value
// for turning the video frame into a 1-bit black-and-white image.
//
var markerCount = detector.detectMarkerLite(raster, threshold);

Those markers are then iterated so their transformation matrices can be extracted and used to place 3D objects.

// Create a NyARTransMatResult object for getting the marker translation matrices.
var resultMat = new NyARTransMatResult();

var markers = {};

// Go through the detected markers and get their IDs and transformation matrices.
for (var idx = 0; idx &lt; markerCount; idx++) {
  // Get the ID marker data for the current marker.
  // ID markers are special kind of markers that encode a number.
  // The bytes for the number are in the ID marker data.
  var id = detector.getIdMarkerData(idx);

  // Read bytes from the id packet.
  var currId = -1;
  // This code handles only 32-bit numbers or shorter.
  if (id.packetLength <= 4) {
    currId = 0;
    for (var i = 0; i &lt; id.packetLength; i++) {
      currId = (currId << 8) | id.getPacketData(i);
    }
  }

  // If this is a new id, let's start tracking it.
  if (markers[currId] == null) {
    markers[currId] = {};
  }
  // Get the transformation matrix for the detected marker.
  detector.getTransformMatrix(idx, resultMat);

  // Copy the result matrix into our marker tracker object.
  markers[currId].transform = Object.asCopy(resultMat);
}

Getting matrices into a renderer

glMatrix matrices are 16-element FloatArrays with the translation column in the last four elements. Translating a JSARToolKit matrix into that layout requires reversing some signs, presumably because of how ARToolKit sets up matrices and an inverted Y-axis. That conversion makes a JSARToolKit matrix behave like a glMatrix one.

Other libraries need their own conversion function. Three.js users also hook into the FLARParam.copyCameraMatrix method, which writes the FLARParam perspective matrix out in glMatrix style.

function copyMarkerMatrix(arMat, glMat) {
  glMat[0] = arMat.m00;
  glMat[1] = -arMat.m10;
  glMat[2] = arMat.m20;
  glMat[3] = 0;
  glMat[4] = arMat.m01;
  glMat[5] = -arMat.m11;
  glMat[6] = arMat.m21;
  glMat[7] = 0;
  glMat[8] = -arMat.m02;
  glMat[9] = arMat.m12;
  glMat[10] = -arMat.m22;
  glMat[11] = 0;
  glMat[12] = arMat.m03;
  glMat[13] = -arMat.m13;
  glMat[14] = arMat.m23;
  glMat[15] = 1;
}

Pulling it together in Three.js

Three.js integration needs three pieces: a full-screen quad carrying the video image, a camera using the FLARParam perspective matrix, and an object transformed by the marker matrix.

// I'm going to use a glMatrix-style matrix as an intermediary.
// So the first step is to create a function to convert a glMatrix matrix into a Three.js Matrix4.
THREE.Matrix4.prototype.setFromArray = function(m) {
  return this.set(
    m[0], m[4], m[8], m[12],
    m[1], m[5], m[9], m[13],
    m[2], m[6], m[10], m[14],
    m[3], m[7], m[11], m[15]
  );
};

// glMatrix matrices are flat arrays.
var tmp = new Float32Array(16);

// Create a camera and a marker root object for your Three.js scene.
var camera = new THREE.Camera();
scene.add(camera);

var markerRoot = new THREE.Object3D();
markerRoot.matrixAutoUpdate = false;

// Add the marker models and suchlike into your marker root object.
var cube = new THREE.Mesh(
  new THREE.CubeGeometry(100,100,100),
  new THREE.MeshBasicMaterial({color: 0xff00ff})
);
cube.position.z = -50;
markerRoot.add(cube);

// Add the marker root to your scene.
scene.add(markerRoot);

// Next we need to make the Three.js camera use the FLARParam matrix.
param.copyCameraMatrix(tmp, 10, 10000);
camera.projectionMatrix.setFromArray(tmp);

// To display the video, first create a texture from it.
var videoTex = new THREE.Texture(videoCanvas);

// Then create a plane textured with the video.
var plane = new THREE.Mesh(
  new THREE.PlaneGeometry(2, 2, 0),
  new THREE.MeshBasicMaterial({map: videoTex})
);

// The video plane shouldn't care about the z-buffer.
plane.material.depthTest = false;
plane.material.depthWrite = false;

// Create a camera and a scene for the video plane and
// add the camera and the video plane to the scene.
var videoCam = new THREE.Camera();
var videoScene = new THREE.Scene();
videoScene.add(plane);
videoScene.add(videoCam);

...

// On every frame do the following:
function tick() {
  // Draw the video frame to the canvas.
  videoCanvas.getContext('2d').drawImage(video, 0, 0);
  canvas.getContext('2d').drawImage(videoCanvas, 0, 0, canvas.width, canvas.height);

  // Tell JSARToolKit that the canvas has changed.
  canvas.changed = true;

  // Update the video texture.
  videoTex.needsUpdate = true;

  // Detect the markers in the video frame.
  var markerCount = detector.detectMarkerLite(raster, threshold);
  for (var i=0; i&lt;markerCount; i++) {
    // Get the marker matrix into the result matrix.
    detector.getTransformMatrix(i, resultMat);

    // Copy the marker matrix to the tmp matrix.
    copyMarkerMatrix(resultMat, tmp);

    // Copy the marker matrix over to your marker root object.
    markerRoot.matrix.setFromArray(tmp);
  }

  // Render the scene.
  renderer.autoClear = false;
  renderer.clear();
  renderer.render(videoScene, videoCam);
  renderer.render(scene, camera);
}