Reference Image best practices

How to choose a target object

When you choose the target object to augment, consider these tips:

Choose an object that is planar (flat), such as posters, billboards, flyers, book covers, CD covers, paintings, etc.
DO NOT choose an object that is dynamic in nature. Things like news tickers and cats should be avoided.
The system recognizes your object based on its defining characteristics. Be sure that the defining characteristics of your object are NOT:
- Transparency
- Shiny surfaces
- Repetitive patterns
- Only text

Poor object choices

Repetitive pattern

repetitive pattern

The pattern of this table will not be trackable. Equally poor: brick walls.

Indistinguishable Characteristics (including AR markers and QR codes)

There are not enough distinguishing characteristics in this logo to properly track. Please NOTE that AR markers and QR codes will not be recognized in Layar Vision.

Animate objects

animate object

Cats move. We cannot account for that with our algorithm. Besides, why mess with nature?

Creating/Taking a picture of your target object

Once you choose your target object, you will want to submit the best reference image possible. You can follow these tips:

No reflections or transparency
No motion blur
Image contains the complete object, so no occlusions or crops unless it is a dynamic part of the object (such as text).
Sufficiently high resolution of the object (i.e. not too small in taken image)
Sufficient and consistent lighting (Be sure that object is not shadowed)
The image is a frontal view of the object

Good & Bad examples

Good Example:

mexican menu good example

This reference image has characteristics that will give the best results: clear lines, variety of features, excellent image quality, text that is not going to change.

Bad Examples:

Transparency

bad example: transparency

We should start over with this picture. The angle is slightly off. Our flyer is behind glass, resulting in some glare. Also, we should crop out the background room.

Blurry

bad example - blurry

We should hold our hand steady when taking our reference image. The motion blur in each of these images is too high (some to the extreme) to be considered a good reference image.

Flash

bad example-flash

This one was taken at the right angle, but the glare from the flash will yield poor results when the user tries to track it in real life.

Poor angle

bad example - poor angle

Finally, be sure to take the picture from the front of the object if possible. Our system accounts for some variation of angle by the user, but it is best to start with a reference image from the front.

Creating a set of reference images

Sometimes you might want to create a set of reference images which will have similar look and feel. Please try to minimize the similar part as much as possible. For instance, there are two reference images and half part of the images is the same. The tracking performance will be pretty bad when the camera is pointing at that similar part since Layar Vision is confused as what to render.

Print with lots of text

When augmenting an article with lots of text, instead of making the entire page a reference image, it is better to only use the part with lots of colors and features. For instance, it is better to only use the upper part of the article below as reference image instead of the entire page.

We also hosted a webinar where our product and R&D departments provided a few more examples of good vs. bad reference images. For additional tips, please see our FAQ page for Layar Vision.