Documentation

Setup Guide Vuzix

Project Setup

  • Follow instruction that came with the Vuzix SDK to setup an Android application to run on Vuzix. (There is also a working SampleProject bundled in this SDK, where all these steps are already made)
  • Create a libs folders in your project root directory and copy libs/wikitudesdk.jar

  • In Eclipse enter Preferences -> Android -> Build and ensure the option Force error when external jars contain native libraries is unchecked

    External jar contains native libraries

  • Add the following permissions to your Manifest.xml

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_WIFI_STATE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_GPS" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.camera" android:required="true" />
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.location" android:required="true" />
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.sensor.accelerometer" android:required="true" />
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.sensor.compass" android:required="true" />
<uses-feature android:glEsVersion="0x00020000" android:required="true" />
<uses-sdk android:targetSdkVersion="19" android:minSdkVersion="9"/>
  • The activity holding the AR-View (called architectView in the following) must have set android:configChanges="screenSize|orientation" in the AndroidManifest.xml, for example this could look like:
<activity android:name="com.yourcompany.yourapp.YourArActivity"
   android:configChanges="screenSize|orientation"/>

AR View in Activity

Keep in mind that the Wikitude SDK is not a native Android SDK as you know from other SDK's. The basic concept is to add a so called architectView in your project and notify it about lifecycle events. The architectView creates a Camera-Surface and handles sensor events. The experience itself, named ARchitect World, is implemented in JavaScript and packaged in your application's asset-folder (as in this project) or on your own server. ARchitectWorlds are written in HTML/JavaScript and call methods in Wikitude's AR-namespace (e.g. AR.GeoObject).

You must include 

 <script src="https://wikitude.com/libs/architect.js"></script>

in ARchitect World html files to use AR namespace and the architectView will handle them properly (To test an ARchitect World on a desktop browser, you must include ade.js tool instead to avoid JavaScript Errors and see a development console)

It is recommended to handle augmented reality in a separate Activity. Declare the architectView inside a layout XML. E.g. Add this within FrameLayout's parent tags.

<com.wikitude.architect.ArchitectView android:id="@+id/architectView"
   android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent"/>

ArchitectView is creating a camera surface so ensure to properly release camera in case you're using it somewhere else in your application. Besides the rear-camera the ArchitectView also makes use of compass and accelerometer values, requires OpenGL 2.0 and at least Android 2.3. ArchitectView.isDeviceSupported(Context context) checks whether the current device has all required hard- and software in place or not.

Note: Make AR-View only accessible to supported devices

It is very important to notify the ArchitectView about life-cycle events of the Activity. Call architectView's onCreate(), onPostCreate(), onPause, onDestroy() inside your Activity's lifecycle methods. Best practice is to define a member variable for the architectView in your Activity. Set it right after setContentViewin Activity's onCreate(), and then access architectView via member-variable later on.

this.architectView = (ArchitectView)this.findViewById( R.id.architectView );
final StartupConfiguration config = new StartupConfiguration( "" /* license key */ );
this.architectView.onCreate( config );

Activity's onPostCreate() is the best place to load the AR experience.

this.architectView.onPostCreate();
this.architectView.load( "YOUR-AR-URL" );

The architectView.load() argument is the path to the HTML file that defines your AR experience. It can be relative to the asset folder root or a web URL (starting with http:// or https://). e.g. architectView.load('arexperience.html') opens the HTML in your project's assets-folder, whereat architectView.load('http://your-server.com/arexperience.html') loads the file from a server.

Note: You can only pass arguments to the html file when loading it via url. architectView.load('arexperience.html?myarg=1') does not work.

Location

Management of the location is important in geo-based augmented reality applications. Depending on the use-case location is used via GPS or network and may be updated every second or once in a while. Although the SDKExamples project provides a basic implementation of a LocationProvider this is by far not the best location strategy available for Android.

Please use your own advanced location strategy implementation in case you have special requirements.

Android 4.4 (KitKat)

Android SDK 19 (KitKat) changes various implementations of the WebView. Please have a look at the Android 4.4 WebView Migration document by Google for details. Furthermore debugging of your ARchitect World improved a lot, have a look at the Debugging Web Apps documentation by Google for a step-by-step guide.