# Augmented reality experiments

> An afternoon with Even Westvang and ARtoolkit, drafting augmented reality markers by hand and confusing the tracker by drawing them in perspective.

- Page: https://www.elasticspace.com/2006/08/augmented-reality-experiments/
- Author: Timo Arnall (https://www.elasticspace.com/)
- Section: Projects (https://www.elasticspace.com/project/)
- Published: 2006-08-29
- Updated: 2026-07-04
- Tags: Architecture, Augmented Reality, Even Westvang, Graphic Design, Information Design, Interaction Design, Play, Research, Tangible Interaction, Touch Project, Ubicomp
- Site map for agents: https://www.elasticspace.com/llms.txt

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![Hand-drafted AR markers in pencil and ink on paper, sitting on a laptop next to a copy of 'The Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction'.](https://www.elasticspace.com/images/augmented-reality-experiments/ar-marker-drawn.jpg)

*Hand-drafted AR markers, AHO 2006.*

The goggle/glasses/helmet variety of AR is the worst of VR with extra problems: slow, inaccurate, cumbersome, headache-inducing. The user wears something in front of their eyes that superimposes 3D objects on the physical world. AR works when it’s just a screen and a video feed: the same space represented twice, once in front of you, once on screen with overlaid objects. On a mobile phone the screen would act as a magic lens to secret things.

![Hand drawing markers](https://www.elasticspace.com/images/augmented-reality-experiments/35538051_6cab104ae2.jpg)

*Hand drawing markers*

On that afternoon we didn’t have a printer handy for making the AR marks, so we took to drafting them by hand, stencilling them off the screen with a pencil and inking them in. The hand process opened up connections between craft and digital information.

![AR nail decorations](https://www.elasticspace.com/images/augmented-reality-experiments/35538159_35266259fb.jpg)

*AR nail decorations*

We sketched out printing the markers on clothes, painting them on nails, glazing them into ceramics. We confused ARtoolkit by drawing markers in perspective, and tried to get recursive objects with screen-based markers and video feedback.

![Confusing ARtoolkit](https://www.elasticspace.com/images/augmented-reality-experiments/35538190_66615740e9.jpg)

*Confusing ARtoolkit*

An entire research programme is looking at this. [Variable Environment](http://sketchblog.ecal.ch/variable_environment/) with [ECAL](https://web.archive.org/web/20060617041243/http://www.ecal.ch:80/pages/home_new.asp) and [EPFL](http://www.epfl.ch), blogging the entire exploratory (they call it ‘sketch’) phase and curating the results online. The work is multi-disciplinary and involves architects, visual designers, computer scientists, interaction designers, etc. Check out the simple [AR ready products](http://sketchblog.ecal.ch/variable_environment/archives/2006/07/ar_ready_simple.html), [sample applications](http://sketchblog.ecal.ch/variable_environment/archives/2006/07/applications_1.html) and [mixed reality tests](http://sketchblog.ecal.ch/variable_environment/archives/2006/01/mixed_reality_t_1.html) with [various patterns](http://sketchblog.ecal.ch/variable_environment/archives/2006/03/test_01_pattern.html).

This is part of a shift in the research community towards publishing ongoing exploratory work online, championed by [Nicolas Nova](https://web.archive.org/web/20060712191908/http://tecfa.unige.ch:80/perso/staf/nova/blog/) and [Anne Galloway](http://www.purselipsquarejaw.org/).