Augmented Reality Web Browser using Unity

Published on 01 Apr 2021. Written by Ipshita Soni

AR or Augmented Reality is the concept that lets a user, experience computer-generated things/objects in a real environment or in the real world. The experience you have on your phones or tablets or PCs is hence enhanced by AR. We all have watched a lot of sci-fi movies which keep us dreaming of having such technologies with us one day. Therefore, you can start by experiencing your browsing by an AR web browser. This Augmented reality project will guide you through the whole Augmented reality. 

To create an AR web browser, you need to get a simple concept that you will be able to visualize the whole trail of your search history in front of your eyes. This can be done if you are enabled to visualize the image of each link in virtual reality. Let us get started and look at how this can be brought to reality step by step. 

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SLNOTE
Knowledge required: Android development, NodeJS.

Tools required: Android phone, Unity AR.

1. If your android web browser is going to be virtualized then obviously you would not be able to operate it with your fingers. You will first need to find a way such that your AR web browser can detect speech and hence proceed with the search.
2. Your android phones would already have a speech to text functionality. All you need to do is to find a plugin and install it so that it works on your Unity AR.
3. Now the next step is to sort a way such that you can render your web browser in the environment.
4. For that start with installing Android System Web View. This will allow you to create interactable web pages/websites inside an Android app itself. 
5. Now find a plugin that will enable interaction between user and the website. You should be able to look at the errors and take them away. If you are not able to do that then this can become tough.
6. To get a picture of your website in front of your eyes you can try the following instructions. 

SLLATEST
Save an Android Canvas to a bitmap then encode it to a PNG. Send these bytes to Unity and hence you will be able to create an appearance with an array of bytes.

1. You can take a screenshot of the website with a library for NodeJS called web shot. You will have to code a NodeJS block such that it listens on a port on a server and whenever that port gets hit, it returns some information.
2. Install the web shot module and create a small block in which you will pass an address and it will return you an image of the website.
3. Now you will notice that as soon as you close your terminal your AR Web browser ends as well. To avoid this, we have a module called forever available on the internet. 
4. If you want to visualize your search path via images on your AR web browser non-stop then use the NodeJS block and the forever module together. Hence, your browsing has become a reality! Yay!

SLDYK
Kit required to develop Augmented Reality Web Browser using Unity:

• Unity

Technologies you will learn by working on Augmented Reality Web Browser using Unity:

• Augmented reality
• Web Development

Any Questions?