Chapter 8: Planets: Tracking Images

In this chapter, we will be using augmented reality for data visualization and education. We're going to build a project where users can learn about the planets in our Solar System. Suppose you have a children's science book on the Solar System with a companion mobile app. On the page about planet Earth, for example, the reader can point their mobile device at the picture on the page and a 3D rendering of the Earth will pop out of the page.

The AR mechanism we'll be using is known as image tracking. With image tracking, you prepare a reference library of images that may be recognized and tracked in the real world at runtime. When the user's device's camera detects one of these images, a virtual object can be instantiated at the image location.

I have provided you with "planet cards," which have pictures and unique markers on them for each planet that I created from free resources available on the web, for...