Documentation on SimpleARToolKit

The zipped folder in the download has the following sub-folders:

• library – to be installed in the Processing environment.
• src – the source codes of the library.
• examples – two demonstration programs as seen from the videos in the last post.
• print – PDFs of the marker patterns.
• data – to be put in the sketch folder. It contains the camera calibration file and the marker patterns.

The SimpleARToolKit object is created by

new SimpleARToolKit(this, "patt.kanji");

where the second parameter is the file name of the marker pattern you want to track. Currently, it tracks only one single pattern. The pattern file, e.g. “patt.kanji” should reside in the data folder of the sketch. The default camera parameter “camera_para.dat” should also be there.

The method register(”displayFunc”) registers a callback function, e.g. displayFunc() in your main sketch. It caters for customized display of any 3D objects users would like to show on the tracked marker.

The method showImage() displays the capture screen in the main sketch window. The current version assumes the capture size is the same as the sketch size. This method takes care of the OpenGL details.

The method findMatch(100) does the actual tracking with the parameter, 100 as a tolerance level. It returns a boolean value depending on if any matched pattern is found.

The method showObject() takes care of the both the projection and model transformation matrices. It also invokes the callback function in the main sketch to show any objects defined.

A private method swapImage() is in the library which may need to enhance later. Since the original ARToolKit expects the image buffer with the Y-axis in different direction from what the Processing Capture provides. This method is a slow process to take care of the flipping of the image buffer.