VizARD. Augmented Reality Data Visualization. Project Proposal

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1 VizARD Augmented Reality Data Visualization Project Proposal

2 Contents i

3 1. VizARD It is easier for us to identify patterns and correlations in data when it is visualised rather than presented as numeric data. When you are presented with numeric data in a document, an article or newspaper and need to understand the data better, it could be valuable to have a visual presentation of the data. This project aims to create a mobile application that utilizes the power of augmented reality to quickly visualise numeric data. Whatever can be expressed in numbers, may be presented in lines." - William Playfair The Project When presented with numeric data, it could be difficult to identify patterns, compare, classify or just analyse the data. The data could also be in a format, such as a printed document or newspaper, which does not allow you to quickly create a visualisation of the data. Just consider the following data - the graph definitely allows for quicker comparison. Cereal Comparison Total carbs of which is sugar Name Carbs Sugars All-Bran with Extra Fiber 8 0 Cheerios 17 1 Corn Flakes 21 2 Rice Krispies 22 3 Special K 16 3 All-Bran 7 5 Wheaties Honey Gold 16 8 Apple Cinnamon Cheerios Honey Nut Cheerios Frosted Flakes Honey-comb Muesli Raisins & Almonds Cap'n'Crunch Corn Pops Lucky Charms Cocoa Puffs Froot Loops

4 The goal of this project is to enable users to easily visualise printed numeric data with the use of their mobile phones. The application should be smart enough to interpret the captured data to generate a fitting chart. The user should not be limited to the graph recommended by the application. Some customization should be allowed, such as changing the type of chart, the axis of the chart, adjust the colour, etc. To make the application more appealing to the user, the photo taken to capture the data, should be used as the target on which to generate the graph using augmented reality. 3. Project owner This project will be completed for EPI-USE Labs in Pretoria. Jhani Coetzee jhani@labs.epiuse.com 4. Project scope 4.1 Functional requirements Capture the data: o The user will take a photo of the numeric data (such as a table in a document). o The data will be extracted from the photo via OCR (optical character recognition). o The photo will also be used as the AR map, to provide a reference point of where to render the 3D graph. A suitable 3D graph should be generated to represent the data. An algorithm should be designed to determine what the best graph is to represent the captured data. This data should then be visualized onto the AR map by means of augmented reality. The user should be able to make changes to the visualization e.g. basic changes to the data like swopping the axis, add labels, change the colors or choose another type of graph to visualize the data. 4.2 Additional features More advanced data visualizations than just standard graphs. Allow the user to share a captured image of the visualization with other people, e.g. send someone the screenshot via WhatsApp or share on social media channels. More advanced visualization editing. 2

5 5. Architectural requirements It is required for the application to run on Android, but as a bonus it should run on ios as well. The following technologies should be considered, but the project group should decide which technologies to use while completing the architectural design. OpenCV or OCRPlugin for optical character recognition libraries. Metaio, Vuforia, D Fusion, etc. for Augmented Reality SDK. WebGL for a 3D capabilities to create AR models. Git for version control. Phonegap to cater for a multi-platform design (if feasible). 6. Skills requirements No particular skillset is required, but an interest in mobile development and data visualization will come in handy. 7. Project deliverables Documentation o Requirements document o Architectural design o Project plan o How to guide Source code Application ready to be published on at least one app store. 8. EPI-USE commitments The project owner can be contacted if the group has any urgent questions. A timeline of the deliverables should be submitted with the project plan. Regular meetings should be scheduled with the project owner to demo the progress made on the project. Meetings can be held at the EPI-USE offices, which is close to the University of Pretoria, but other arrangements can be made. EPI-USE can provide the group with an Android device for testing, should it be necessary. EPI-USE has an ios developer license, should the team decide to develop the application for ios as well. 3

6 9. Some inspiration 4