Overview

Augmented reality is hot. Artificial intelligence is hot. Combining the two to create an augmented view of reality where pictures can be identified, tracked, and labeled with meaningful text is a truly fun and exciting experience. This page describes how to use Unity and Microsoft Cognitive Services to create an application to do just that. The application can be run as-is on the desktop emulator, and it can also be deployed onto the Microsoft HoloLens.

The application uses the Microsoft Computer Vision API, part of Microsoft Cognitive Services, to extract meaningful text from images. Vuforia is used for image detection and tracking. Microsoft Visual Studio is used to create script actions that call out to the Computer Vision API and also to deploy the application to the HoloLens.

Prerequisites

This tutorial requires that you have a 64-bit Windows computer with a camera and an internet connection. The following software needs to be installed on your computer:

1. Visual Studio 2017

   • If you do not have Visual Studio 2017 installed:
     • Navigate to Download and Tools for Windows 10
     • Download a Visual Studio installer; the Community Edition is a good choice
   • Open the Visual Studio installer
     • If Visual Studio is installed, open it from the Settings > Apps control panel
   • Select the Universal Windows Platform development workload
   • Select the Game Development with Unity workload
     • You may deselect the Unity Editor optional component since you'll be installing a newer version of Unity from the instructions below

   All editions of Visual Studio 2017 are supported (including Community). While Visual Studio 2015 Update 3 is still supported, we recommend Visual Studio 2017 for the best experience.

2. Unity Editor

   • Navigate to Download Unity
   • Scroll down and under Resources click Older versions of Unity
   • Scroll down and for Unity 2018.1.0 click Downloads (Win) (NOTE: Newer versions have deprecated support for .NET. We will discuss how to support more recent versions in future releases of this tutorial)
   • Select Unity Editor (64 bit)
   • Save the installer executable to your Downloads folder and double click it
   • Click Next, accept the terms of service, click Next, click Next, select the download folder, click Next, and click Finish

You will also need to setup some cloud services.

1. Vuforia

   • Navigate to Vuforia Developer Portal
   • Click Register
   • Enter information to create a development account

2. Microsoft Azure Resource Group

   • Navigate to Azure Portal
     • Sign in to the Azure Cloud if requested
   • Click Resource groups
   • In the blade that opens on the right, click + Add
   • In the blade on the right, fill in the following fields:
     • Resource group name: myCognitiveResources
     • Subscription: select your subscription
     • Resource group location: select West US 2
   • Click Create

3. Microsoft Computer Vision API **

   • Navigate to Azure Portal
     • Sign in to the Azure Cloud if requested
   • Click Create a resource
   • Type Computer Vision in the search box
   • Click the item named Computer Vision
   • Click Create
   • In the dialog, fill in the following fields:
     • Name: Type in myComputerVision
     • Subscription: select your subscription
     • Pricing tier: select F0 for free
     • Resource group: select myCognitiveResources from the drop-down
     • Click Create
   • When it's ready, go to the resource group and click myComputerVision
   • Click Overview and copy Endpoint to a text file (you will use this later)
   • Click Keys and copy KEY 1 to a text file (you will use this later)

4. Microsoft Text Analytics API **

   • Navigate to Azure Portal
     • Sign in to the Azure Cloud if requested
   • Click Create a resource
   • Type Translator Text in the search box
   • Click the item named Translator Text
   • Click Create
   • In the dialog, fill in the following fields:
     • Name: Type in myTranslatorText
     • Subscription: select your subscription
     • Pricing tier: select F0 for free
     • Resource group: select myCognitiveResources from the drop-down
     • Click Create
   • When it's ready, go to the resource group and click myTranslatorText
   • Click Keys and copy KEY 1 to a text file (you will use this later)

5. Microsoft Face API **

   • Navigate to Azure Portal
     • Sign in to the Azure Cloud if requested
   • Click Create a resource
   • Type Face in the search box
   • Click the item named Face
   • Click Create
   • In the dialog, fill in the following fields:
     • Name: Type in myFace
     • Subscription: select your subscription
     • Pricing tier: select F0 for free
     • Resource group: select myCognitiveResources from the drop-down
     • Click Create
   • When it's ready, go to the resource group and click myFace
   • Click Overview and copy Endpoint to a text file (you will use this later)
   • Click Keys and copy KEY 1 to a text file (you will use this later)

** You should hold off doing this until a few days before the tutorial, because free keys expire after one week. Otherwise, you might have to refresh your keys beforehand, which can take up to 10 minutes.

Demos

• 01-HoloWorld
• 02-Cube
• 03-ImageLabels
• 04-Camera
• 05-OCR
• 06-Handwriting
• 07-Translate
• 08-FacialRecognition

Contributing

This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact opencode@microsoft.com with any additional questions or comments.