Get Markers

We are working hard to make it as easy as possible to play our games with optimum experience, which means you might need to print out markers to play and to be able to take advantage of our unique TouchCard™ solution.

Markers for Magic Chess

Please print Chessboard and TouchCard markers and then carefully cut them out.

Set your printer to scale at 100%, not ”Scale to fit”, when printing, to get the intended experience. If printed correctly, the width of the chessboard should be 16 cm or 6.3 inches.

The marker works as well if you print it in GREYSCALE

Choose print format:

[icon name=”file-pdf-o” class=”” unprefixed_class=””] Magic Chess US Letter Marker

[icon name=”file-pdf-o” class=”” unprefixed_class=””] Magic Chess A4 Marker

Actiste

Actiste is an insulin device as a service from the company Brighter. The app shows an interactive demo of the Actiste – instruction video for the MR-app

Actiste on App Store or Actiste on Google Play

[icon name=”file-pdf-o” class=”” unprefixed_class=””] Actiste marker

You need to print this [icon name=”file-pdf-o” class=”” unprefixed_class=””]  Actiste tracking image. It is recommended you cut out the Business Card sized image and hold it in your hand and when the app is launched, point the camera towards the image.

jDome BikeAround and Bestic

Product demo for Camanio Care, displaying jDome BikeAround and Bestic.

jDome BikeAround is an immersive bike solution for people with dementia and stroke.

Bestic is an eating aid for people with hand motion disabilities.

[icon name=”file-pdf-o” class=”” unprefixed_class=””]  Camanio marker

Camanio at App Store and Camanio at Play Store – You need to print the Camanio marker and when the app is launched, point the camera towards the image.

Why do I need markers?

When ARKit and ARCore exists, which obviously do not need markers, why do we insist that you should print markers?

Short answer: As most of our titles focus on manipulation of virtual objects close to you, we have found that markers is a very good, simple and cheap ”Six Degrees of Freedom”-mouse (6DOF). They have unparalleled precision and occlusion is ”included” in the solution. It might seem plain with a paper 6DOF-mouse, but if it works, why not?

Don’t take our word for it, though, please print out a marker and try it out for yourself – if you are still wondering after that – please read on:

A Touch of Reality

We want to treat the smart device as a magic window, and only that, and to accommodate for Mixed Reality glasses, which does not have a touch screen. This means we put all functionality in the real world, which is natural and intuitive for the users, but you must be able to reach it with your hand, hence the TouchCard™. We think the TouchCard™ is the best way to merge practical virtuality with reality.

The TouchCard™, solves several problems, mainly regarding interaction with virtual objects, which ARKit and ARCore cannot handle at the moment.

By using the same high precision solution, Vuforia, to track the images, we can use one image as the ”World Marker” and another as a 3D-mouse, the TouchCard™. This means we can use the same solution to track the world and our interaction with it, which saves computing power. While ARKit and ARCore can track the world, they cannot track the hand, and even if they could, they also have to mask it, and that will not happen any time soon, if at all. They might do a separate device which will track the hand, but it will probably still not be in front of the virtual objects – and you have to buy it. As we use a printable marker to manipulate objects, we get all the above features ”for free” – and you too.

When you use ARKit and ARCore and reach out to try and touch something, your hands comes behind whatever you try to reach, even though the virtual object is clearly behind your hand, and the illusion is broken (see image above). The only way to control the virtual objects is to control them on screen, again breaking the illusion. You can get away with this using ARKit and ARCore, by using large objects, which you would not reach anyway, thus taking away you wanting to reach it. But if you think of it, most things we do for a longer period of time, we usually do at some sort of table. This is where the limitation of ARKit and ARCore come in the way of your illusion – I have to manipulate objects by touching the screen, when the objects are right there, within reach:

By holding the TouchCard™ in your hand, it masks out any virtual object in front of it, letting you manipulate virtual objects in real space, without breaking the illusion.  You can rotate, move, zoom in and out in six degrees (6DOF) – using natural hand-eye coordination. You can even feel that you have touched an object, as the smart device in your other hand, vibrates when it collides, which the brain connects as a touch.  All this using your regular smart device and a simple piece of paper.

As you can see in the image above, the TouchCard™ appears to be in front of the virtual chessboard. The illusion is further enhanced by the shadow it makes on the chessboard and the fact that it is the real card shown, which lets you obscure some parts of it with your real fingers. First the chessboard, then the TouchCard above it and then the thumb above that – the chain for your brain to buy the illusion is complete.

Our TouchCard™ is a low-tech stepping stone towards directly manipulating virtual objects with our hands, where we will inevitably go. But before then, the TouchCard™ can literally make it possible for millions to reach out and touch virtual objects in the real world – now.

This is why you need to print a marker.

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