Augmented Reality Birthday Card

Wishing someone a happy birthday could not be any easier with social media reminders of the date, and online platforms for sending a quick message very easily. Someone who wishes to do something extra special and thoughtful would purchase a card to give or send to the person having the birthday. For an even more special experience, this birthday card goes beyond the regular birthday card with a 2D image inside. Instead, this unusual card reveals an augmented reality 3D birthday cake object when viewed through a companion app on the user’s smartphone.

Using a 3D model with augmented reality technology adds an element of surprise, which makes the card more exciting and fun to receive for the end-user. Receiving a special, out of the ordinary card helps make the receiver’s birthday a more memorable one, and can strengthen the relationship between the gift giver and recipient for gifting a unique experience. The novelty of this card makes it stand out from other cards available to purchase in the marketplace.

This card is aimed at anyone who wants to give something extra special for friends or loved one for their birthday. The card is age and gender neutral, and appropriate to give to anyone who owns a smartphone. The only requirement of the user to use this application is to download a free companion app in order to view the 3D object. Given how pervasive smartphones and tablets are in Canadian society in 2019, many people either already have this technology or have access to it. Asking end-users or gift receivers to download and use the companion app shouldn’t be too technologically challenging.

I created this project as part of the Technology Studio course as part of Sheridan College’s Interactive Media Management (IMM) program. The objective of the course was to explore uses of interactive media beyond creating conventional apps for the web, to push students to explore technology we had not previously used before, and to create marketable projects within the confines of course deadlines.

For this project I used Unity, Vuforia, Xcode, a store-bought birthday card I made some modifications to, and a 3D model created by another artist. I began by creating a database within the developer portal of the Vuforia website. From there I uploaded the image to be used as an image target, which was the inside of the card (the happy birthday message).

The image was processed on the Vuforia website, and once finished I exported a Unity compatible database. This database was then imported into my Unity project, and I added an image target under the Vuforia option in Unity. From there, I modified the Image Target behavior options to use the database I created in Vuforia, and selected the image target I created.

I imported the birthday cake 3D model and made it a child of the image target. I used the Build Settings, modified the player settings including creating a Bundle identifier, and created a build file to open in Xcode. Once in Xcode, I created a build to deploy onto my iPhone.

Once this was completed, I could use the app natively on my iPhone, move the camera over the inside of the card, and see the cake appear. In the end, I was very pleased that I succeeded in executing this concept, despite the challenges I encountered learning new software and processes.