We are extremely pleased to announce the launch of 8th Wall Curved Image Targets, providing developers with new tools to bring to life coffee cups, bottles, cans and more using web-based augmented reality (WebAR).

Curved Image Targets expand upon our existing WebAR image target capabilities which previously was designed for flat image targets only. With the rollout of Release 15 of our AR Engine, developers can now create WebAR projects that are activated by and track images wrapped around cylinder- and cone-shaped objects.

Bringing cylindrical and conical image targets to the web was a highly requested feature from our developers in order to meet the massive demand from consumer packaged goods brands looking to use AR to engage their customers with their product, without the friction of downloading an app.

Like all of 8th Wall’s WebAR capabilities, projects created using Curved Image Targets work across iOS and Android devices with an estimated reach of nearly 3 billion smartphones, and can be immediately experienced with the tap of a link or by scanning a QR code.

 

If you are familiar with developing WebAR projects using our best-in-class flat image targets, you will feel right at home with cylindrical and conical image target development. Upload and manage all image target types in the 8th Wall cloud after logging into your account. Projects can support up to 1,000 image targets and can dynamically swap sets of up to 10 active targets at runtime.

At 8th Wall, we strive to make development of WebAR projects as efficient as possible, so we have designed the curved image target upload flow with this in mind. While developers are free to input exact measurements of the cylinder- and cone-shaped objects their image targets will be wrapped around, we have introduced a slider input option which allows them to visually estimate the shape of their target using the provided 3D simulator. Together with our updated target tester, developers can rapidly prototype without the need for measuring tools or printers.

 

Developers can configure multiple target regions on the same product and can choose to combine flat and curved image targets to track the sides and the flat top and bottom of a cylindrical or conical target. Combining flat and curved image targets in the same project can enable experiences which interact with a cylindrical- or conical-shaped product, as well as its box-shaped packaging, for example.

We have updated our open source library (XRExtras) with easy-to-use components to help you get started with curved image targets. Bring curved labels to life with video or create a portal-like effect that houses 3D models inside your object. These work by using your uploaded curved image targets to generate custom 3D geometry. The 8th Wall Project Library has also been updated with sample projects that demonstrate how to use these components. You can kick start your project development by cloning these directly into your workspace!

 

8th Wall’s powerful camera application framework is designed to integrate with other computer vision technologies, external libraries and APIs such as analytics, real-time data feeds and machine learning integrations to create complex and meaningful WebAR projects. In addition, Curved Image Targets can make use of our in-browser video and photo capture and sharing capabilities which can help your project go viral.

So what else can you augment with Curved Image Targets? Well, we challenged our team to come up with a list of objects which go beyond bottles, cups and cans knowing that our AR Engine now supports targets that are curvy and this included things like birthday hats, lampshades, candles, traffic cones, lipstick tubes and posters wrapped around poles.

 

8th Wall Curved Image Targets are now available at 8thwall.com. Simply log in to get started using the Curved Image Target project templates in the Cloud Editor. New users can sign up for a 14-day free trial of 8th Wall to get access to all of our reality tools.

We can’t wait to see what you create!