Thingmark loses track

[jkbaldania]

Hi,

I made my first experience of CPU dismantling.
At closer distance from the real world object (image_1), thingmark remains tracked.

But as soon as I step a bit backwards, far from the real world object (image_2), thingmark loses track and the virtual 3D model disappears. Then I have to again go closer and track the thingmark to resume the experience.

I wonder, for such small objects like CPU, if there are such problems, how can this technology be used for very big machines in industries?
Is there a setting in Thingworx Studio which allows us to go far from the object without losing track of thingmark?

Please also find 3D container settings and thingmark settings attached.

Regards,

Kishan

[bwhelan]

Hi,

Just wondering a few things...

Is this Experience set up for viewing on a HoloLens or a mobile device such as an iPad or phone? If it is not a HoloLens Experience, you must keep the ThingMark within the screen view to keep tracking. The HoloLens however will keep its tracking accurately due to its own spacial awareness as it knows where it and the ThingMark are in 3D space. Also make sure to set the ThinkMark to a suitable size to be viewable at the required distance in TWX Studio! 

Also, make sure that the actual print out of the Thingmark is accurate. If it is for example setup in TWX Studio as a 10cm in size, make sure that the printed version is exactly 10cm also. Sometimes if the printed version is smaller or bigger than what it should be, then there could be issues tracking and displaying the AR accurately.

Regards,

Brian

[jkbaldania]

Hi,

It was published for iPad or phone, not Hololens.

So I have two questions now:

1) As you are saying, Hololens has a spatial awareness. Sounds outstanding. So, if I would have a hololens, scan the thingmark and turn myself 180 degrees, would the AR experience still be active?  Or lets say, I am roaming in 10 metre radius from thingmark, would the AR experience still be active? instead of 10 metre, what is the approximate radius then?

2) How to get Hololens? I tried to get it online but its not simple like buying something on Amazon.

Regards,

Kishan

[bwhelan · Accepted solution]

Hi Kishan,

The HoloLens is a clever device. It continually scans and maps its environment and "knows" where it is in its 3D space. Once a ThingMark is scanned, the HoloLens knows its location in relation to the HoloLens location. Once it is scanned and you are viewing the Experience, you can even remove the ThingMark completely and the HoloLens will still display the Experience. Once you move out of the very local environment, there may be issues if the HoloLens tries to map the new location but I have successfully viewed lots of Experiences even through walls in adjacent rooms and locations. 

Unfortunately I cannot assist with how to obtain the HoloLens itself. Perhaps this is a question for the general forum?

Regards,

Brian

[whity]

In my experience, you can walk around a lot, the tracking is beeing maintained. But sometimes it can get disturbed, for example if the HoloLens has finished scanning and you remove parts of the scene (like chairs etc). Then the whole scene can tilt.

Somehow you should be able to rescan. You could do that by reloading the experience, but then all you progress is lost.

Forcing the experience to rescan should be something like this:

$rootScope.$broadcast("trackinglost", tracked, "twx-dt-target");

Does anyone know the right command?

[jmikesell]

Try playing with the "Extended Tracking" and "Persist Map" options on the 3D Container object. The extended tracking one is supposed to accomplish what you want. I will say the ability to do this is a bit device dependent. New apple products and select new Android phones (stuff supporting ARcore and ARkit) do much better with tracking away from the thingmark. older devices without native AR support rely on the Vuforia SLAM tracking which is not as good, but is what allows for sport on such a wide device library.

Bottom of this page explains these options.

Final thought try changing to model tracking and see if that produces better results.

[jkbaldania]

Thank you bwhelan, whity and jmikesell. Your responses have boosted up my confidence to buy Hololens. I am right now pursuing Thingworx certification course and will soon provide awesome solutions to clients.