Meta Quest 2: This mixed reality app lets you draw like Van Gogh
The mixed reality app Easely allows you to make masterful drawings with a trick.
The application uses the new mixed reality interfaces of the Meta Quest (2), which add an AR mode and voice control to the VR glasses. This allows apps to use the black-and-white camera image of the environment to beam planetariums, ghosts, and avatars into the living room.
Easely takes the drawing technique of tracing and takes it to the next level with mixed reality. The app lets you digitally project any image onto the wall, which you can then manually trace. This way, even if you lack artistic talent, you can create great drawings or frescoes - or just practice drawing.
Easily draw with Meta Quest 2
The app offers access to a ready-made image database. Alternatively, you can load your images into the application via Flickr. The touch controller can be used to precisely adjust the position of the virtual image on the wall.
Easely also supports voice control, so you can adjust the transparency of the projection with a voice command without having to put down your pencil. The following video shows the application in action.
Easely was developed by Richard Hoagland and AR developer AI Baker (whose real name is not mentioned). Their app idea won them first prize at Meta's XR Hackathon.
The prize money will go towards further development of the app. Support for hand tracking and more image databases is planned for the near future.
Tracing with AR: Old idea, new technology
The idea of tracing with augmented reality is not new. Google, among others, has developed a corresponding AR experiment called Drawalong, but only for smartphones.
Meta Quest (2) has the advantage that you have your hands free and a wide field of view instead of looking at a small display. A disadvantage is that the VR glasses only show the environment in black and white and very grainy.
With Meta's next pair of VR glasses, Cambria, that will change: The device is optimized for Mixed Reality and has high-resolution RGB cameras built-in for a colorful and sharp reproduction of the environment.
You can download Easely on Github and install it via Sidequest. The app was developed for Meta Quest 2 and was not tested with the first Quest glasses.
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