Tracking of planar images (natural feature markers).Tracking of simple black squares (any square marker patterns).Single-camera or stereo-camera (camera position/orientation tracking).Īn example of an AR code containing a QR code. artoolkitX is supported by Realmax Inc, a Chinese AR company that develops AR hardware and software. īen Vaughan and Phil Lamb, the former CEO and CTO of ARToolworks, created artoolkitX to ensure that the software is developed and maintained and the ARToolKit community continues to be supported. Among these features are mobile support and natural feature tracking.ĪRToolKitPlus (sometimes written 'ARToolKit+') is intended to be a successor to the ARToolKit library that is optimized for mobile devices.ĪRToolKit was written in C ARToolKit+ was ported it to C++ to make it easier to maintain, and has a new class-based (C++) API that is intended to be easier-to-use. ARToolKit was one of the first AR SDKs for mobile, seen running first on Symbian in 2005, then iOS with the iPhone 3G in 2008, and finally Android as early as 2010 with a professional version by ARToolWorks later in 2011.ĪRToolKit was acquired by DAQRI and re-released open-source starting at version 5.2 on May 13, 2015, including all of the features that were previously only available in the professional licensed version. In 2001 ARToolWorks was incorporated, and v1.0 of the open-source version of ARToolKit was released through the HIT Lab. So ARToolKit solves two of the key problems in Augmented Reality viewpoint tracking and virtual object interaction.ĪRToolKit was originally developed by Hirokazu Kato of Nara Institute of Science and Technology in 1999 and was released by the University of Washington HIT Lab. Once the real camera position is known a virtual camera can be positioned at the same point and 3D computer graphics models drawn exactly overlaid on the real marker. In order to create strong augmented reality, it uses video tracking capabilities that calculate the real camera position and orientation relative to square physical markers or natural feature markers in real time. ARToolKit is a very widely used AR tracking library with over 160,000 downloads on its last public release in 2004. Currently, it is maintained as an open-source project hosted on GitHub. GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0 with special exemptions.ĪRToolKit is an open-source computer tracking library for creation of strong augmented reality applications that overlay virtual imagery on the real world. Cross-platform: Linux, Windows, OS X, iOS, Android

Artoolkit tutorial