Quick Start
If you plan to do anything with glyph recognition and/or augmented reality based on GRATF project, it is
preferred to start with having a look at Glyph Recognition Studio - an application which demonstrates all in
action including glyphs' recognition and 2D/3D augmented reality. To do so you may need to download binaries
or source code of the project. To run pre-compiled Glyph Recognition Studio you will need .NET framework
version 3.5 and XNA 3.1 redistributables installed. If you plan to build the application from source code,
then you will need VS.NET 2008 (C# Express 2008 will work fine) and XNA framework 3.1 installations.
The binaries package of the project contains sample configuration file and instructions about where to
put it in your system. However there is not much to configure, so everything can be done manually. The first
thing to do is to specify glyphs' real size in Options form. This setting is required for glyphs' printing
and for 3D augmented reality. Note: if you use glyphs which you've printed from the Glyph Recognition Studio,
then there should be no problems with this setting as long as it's not changed in between glyphs' printing and
3D augmented reality. However if you use some hand made glyphs, then you will need to measure their size and
specify it in the Options form before starting with augmented reality.
|
The next step is to define glyphs' database - a collection of glyphs of the same size. For this just
right-click on the "Glyph Collections" list and select "New" from the context menu. Create a 5x5 glyphs' database,
for example, and then activate it from the same context menu. When it is done, we are ready to define glyphs,
which is done in the similar way - right-click on the "Glyphs" list to get access to its context menu.
 |
 |
The most important part of defining a glyph is to specify its image, which is constrained by few rules:
1) every glyph must have a border of black cells around it (this zone is actually disabled for drawing, so
user does not have a chance to make a mistake here); 2) every glyph must have at least one white cell in
every row/column; 3) every glyph must be rotation variant (look different when rotated). The rest of settings
define visualization parameters: which color to use for glyph highlighting in recognition mode, which picture
to use in 2D augmented reality mode and which 3D model to use in 3D augmented reality mode.
When glyphs are defined, it is time to print them (use glyphs' context menu), connect USB camera (or use internal one)
and play with all 3 modes of glyphs' visualization: jus highlighting and drawing titles, 2D and 3D augmented reality.
Note: in the case if camera is not available or printer is not reachable, but you would like to
try something quickly, you can always use demo videos
available for downloads. Just run a video and see how application detects glyphs in it and highlights them (glyphs'
size in all demo videos is 113 mm). This will still require definition of glyphs' database obviously.
| 
