How to Develop a Location-based Augmented Reality Application?

Dan Brezalian
3 min readJul 30, 2021

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The Augmented Reality market is growing at a rapid pace. According to Statista, the total market value of AR is $15 billion, which is expected to reach $210 billion by 2022. AR left a massive impact on the gaming industry, and Pokemon Go is a live example. Moreover, the technology is also serving the diverse needs of commercial sectors.

Various industries like education, eCommerce, healthcare are taking advantage of Augmented Reality app development services to boost their productivity. In this guide, we will discuss location-based AR application, which is also known as markerless AR. This type of AR app works on mobile’s GPS tracking system. Moreover, digital compass and accelerometer technologies are used to identify the device’s location with greater accuracy.

Markerless AR applications are majorly used in the tour and travel industry. It helps voyagers to explore nearby areas within their current location. If you are planning to build an AR-powered location-based app, then this guide will help you. We will cover the key points that you need to consider while developing markerless AR applications.

How to develop a markerless or location-based AR app: Steps to follow

There are three key steps we should consider.

Step 1. Integrate all the required data.

Step 2. Select the development tools and technologies.

The most vital is to choose suitable development technologies. There are multiple tools available offering unique features. Below is the list:

ARKit by Apple: It offers the following features

  • Scene geometry
  • Instant AR
  • People occlusion
  • Motion capture
  • Simultaneous front and back camera
  • Collaborative sessions
  • Multiple face tracking
  • Up to 100 images can be detected at a time

ARCore by Google

Developed by Google, ARCore is the most potent tool offering a vital feature which is mapping. It can potentially detect both vertical and horizontal surfaces and can also do motion tracking.

Wikitude

Wikitude offers the following features:

  • Unity plugin for easy implementation of 3D objects
  • Scene Recognition to recognize large things like buildings and landscape.
  • SLAM technology
  • Geolocation support
  • Integration with various frameworks like Cordova and Xamarin

Wikitude allows markerless AR app development for iOS, AR glasses, and Android.

Step 3. Integrate the geolocation data.

GPS tracking system is the simplest approach to track outdoor locations. It offers high accuracy and tracks your position anytime, anywhere.

You can hire an experienced augmented reality app Developer to implement the advanced features into your app. Ensure that the developer you hire has prior experience of working on the same.

Moreover, it is recommended to consider the below steps to take your development process in the right direction:

  • Do competitor analysis to grab the best AR app development idea.
  • There are multiple platforms and SDKs available for AR-based app development. Choose the best one for your project.
  • Either download the existing 3D objects or create a new one tailored to your project requirements.
  • Create a separate design, data, 3D models, required text files, and images.
  • Put all the components on your choice of the development platform.

Conclusion!
I hope this short augmented reality app development guide will help you understand the key steps to follow for AR-enabled app development. Due to the AR capacity and features, users get the opportunity to explore the real world effortlessly. It helps businesses enhance their customer engagements and brand reliability by implementing the technology’s advanced features.

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Dan Brezalian
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Dan Brezalian is a senior mobile app developer at Sparx IT Solutions, a renowned mobile app development company.