While augmented reality research has grown into a mature field over the last years, the aspects of situational awareness and presence of augmented reality (AR) are still quite open research topics. This project is about designing and implementing a collaborative game to explore the different perception of situational awareness, presence and workload in a physical and an AR environment.

• ARGame/ -- Unity project (C#)
  • ARGame/Assets/Editor/UnitTests -- Tests
  • ARGame/Assets/External -- Third-party code
• MirrorServer/ -- Qt project (C++)
  • MirrorServer/UnitTests/ -- Tests
  • MirrorServer/UnitTests/gtest -- Third-party code

The goal of the game is to solve a puzzle by controlling laser beams using mirrors in such a way that a predefined target is hit. The game can be played by one or more local players and one or more remote players.

There are cards present for the local players that represent mirror bases. These must be placed on the table, which will be the locations for the mirrors. The local players will be able to see the mirrors they place through the use of AR technology. Each of the local players will only be given a few of the mirror bases needed to solve the puzzle, and as such solving the puzzle requires cooperation from all local players.

The remote players can also see the placed mirrors, and can rotate them to influence the path of the laser beam(s). Only by cooperation between local players (who can only move the mirror bases) and remote players (who can only rotate them) it becomes possible to hit the target and as such solve the puzzle.

The game provides various different types of mirrors with different properties, allowing for more complex puzzles. One example of such a mirror is a colored mirror, and then require the target is hit with the right (combination of) colors. Another way to make puzzles more complex is requiring that the players combine beams together to create more powerful beams. Other optical components like beam splitters can also be introduced.

The repository contains two main projects: a Unity project, found under the 'ARGame' directory; and a C++/Qt project, found under the 'MirrorServer' directory. Furthermore, reports and accompanying documentation can be found in the 'Reports' directory. The Unity project acts as a client application, and should be run for everyone who wishes to play. The C++/Qt project acts as a server application and should be run from a central location.

The Unity project is designed for Unity 5 or higher. For playing as a local player, the application needs to be deployed to Windows, as the Meta One glasses do not work properly on other platforms. Remote players do not use the Meta One and so they can also play using other platforms.

The server application is written in C++ and uses Qt and OpenCV. The application has been tested and confirmed working on OpenCV 2.4.11 and higher, using Qt 5.4 or higher. Older Qt and OpenCV versions might work, but this is not tested.

First, make sure OpenCV and Qt are installed for the compiler of your choice. The tested compilers are the MSVC 2013 compiler on Windows, and Apple's LLVM compiler (clang) version 6.0, though others should also work.

To build the application, run qmake on the MirrorServer.pro file. Make sure an environment variable 'OPENCV_HOME' is defined and points to the OpenCV installation. The QMake project file links to the Qt version that the QMake executable belongs to, and the OpenCV version defined by 'OPENCV_HOME'.

When the QMake step is finished, run the build tool for your compiler (e.g. nmake for MSVC, make for GNU, and so on). When using Qt Creator, which is recommended, the build command in Qt Creator automatically invokes QMake and the correct make utility, provided OPENCV_HOME is set in the build environment.