Add AR Overlays in MatrixScan

Prerequisites

To proceed, you need to setup a project that uses MatrixScan first, check out this guide (you can ignore the bottom section about the visualization of tracked barcodes using BarcodeTrackingBasicOverlay).

Getting started

There are two ways to add advanced AR overlays to a Data Capture View:

Note

  • The first way is the easiest, as it takes care of adding, removing and animating the overlay’s views whenever needed. It’s also flexible enough to cover the majority of use cases.

  • You can always handle touch events on the views you create like you normally would.

Using BarcodeTrackingAdvancedOverlay

As mentioned above, the advanced overlay combined with its listener offers an easy way of adding augmentations to your DataCaptureView. In this guide we will add a view above each barcode showing its content.

First of all, create a new instance of BarcodeTrackingAdvancedOverlay and add it to the DataCaptureView.

const overlay = BarcodeTrackingAdvancedOverlay.withBarcodeTrackingForView(barcodeTracking, view);

At this point, you have two options.

Note

The second way will take priority over the first one, which means that if a view for a barcode has been set using BarcodeTrackingAdvancedOverlay.setViewForTrackedBarcode(), the function BarcodeTrackingAdvancedOverlayListener.viewForTrackedBarcode() won’t be invoked for that specific barcode.

Using BarcodeTrackingAdvancedOverlayListener

// The component must be registered: `AppRegistry.registerComponent('ARView', () => ARView)` e.g. in index.js
class ARView extends BarcodeTrackingAdvancedOverlayView {
  render() {
    return <Text style={{backgroundColor: 'white'}}>{this.props.barcodeData}</Text>
  }
}

// ...

overlay.listener = {
  viewForTrackedBarcode: (overlay, trackedBarcode) => {
    // Create and return the view you want to show for this tracked barcode. You can also return null, to have no view for this barcode.
    return new ARView({barcodeData: trackedBarcode.barcode.data});
  },

  anchorForTrackedBarcode: (overlay, trackedBarcode) => {
    // As we want the view to be above the barcode, we anchor the view's center to the top-center of the barcode quadrilateral.
    // Use the function 'offsetForTrackedBarcode' below to adjust the position of the view by providing an offset.
    return Anchor.TopCenter;
  },

  offsetForTrackedBarcode: (overlay, trackedBarcode) => {
    // This is the offset that will be applied to the view.
    // You can use .Fraction to give a measure relative to the view itself, the SDK will take care of transforming this into pixel size.
    // We now center horizontally and move up the view to make sure it's centered and above the barcode quadrilateral by half of the view's height.
    return new PointWithUnit(
      new NumberWithUnit(0, MeasureUnit.Fraction),
      new NumberWithUnit(-1, MeasureUnit.Fraction),
    );
  },
};

Using the setters in the overlay

The function BarcodeTrackingListener.didUpdateSession() gives you access to a session, which contains all added, updated and removed tracked barcodes. From here you can create the view you want to display, and then call BarcodeTrackingAdvancedOverlay.setViewForTrackedBarcode(), BarcodeTrackingAdvancedOverlay.setAnchorForTrackedBarcode() and BarcodeTrackingAdvancedOverlay.setOffsetForTrackedBarcode()

didUpdateSession: (barcodeTracking, session) => {
  session.addedTrackedBarcodes.map(trackedBarcode => {
    let trackedBarcodeView = new ARView({barcodeData: trackedBarcode.barcode.data});

    this.overlay.setViewForTrackedBarcode(trackedBarcodeView, trackedBarcode);
    this.overlay.setAnchorForTrackedBarcode(Anchor.TopCenter, trackedBarcode);
    this.overlay.setOffsetForTrackedBarcode(
      new PointWithUnit(
        new NumberWithUnit(0, MeasureUnit.Fraction), new NumberWithUnit(-1, MeasureUnit.Fraction)
      ), trackedBarcode);
  });
}

Provide your own custom implementation

If you do not want to use the overlay, it is also possible to add augmented reality features based on the tracking identifier and the quadrilateral coordinates that every tracked barcode has. Below are some pointers.

Note

The frame coordinates from TrackedBarcode.location need to be mapped to view coordinates, using DataCaptureView.viewQuadrilateralForFrameQuadrilateral().

didUpdateSession: (barcodeTracking, session) => {
  session.removedTrackedBarcodes.map(lostTrackIdentifier => {
    // You now know the identifier of the tracked barcode that has been lost.
    // Usually here you would remove the views associated.
  });

  session.addedTrackedBarcodes.map(trackedBarcode => {
    // Fixed identifier for the tracked barcode.
    const trackingIdentifier = trackedBarcode.identifier;

    // Current location of the tracked barcode.
    const location = trackedBarcode.location;
    view.viewQuadrilateralForFrameQuadrilateral(location)
      .then(quadrilateral => {
        // You now know the location of the tracked barcode.
      });
  });
}