PRODUCTIONAR - TECHNOLOGY

MFD MARKERS vs QR-CODES

Our augmented reality solutions are based on our novel patented high performance computer vision system and digital coding technology. Together they form a "Fiducial Marker System".

'MFD' markers are *not* QR-codes. QR-codes are a legacy technology that unfortunately became the standard for 2D data to be read with smartphones. QR-codes benefit from being globally readable but suffer from difficulty reading them, the user has to get close and typically pause for a few seconds to read the data. With MFD markers your smartphone can detect up to hundreds of markers reliably at once at up to 25x the distance.

Leave QR-codes behind and enter the future!

Conventional Tracking Technology

Barcode

Linear Barcodes contain single number information

(SKU number typically)

Universal Product Codes on goods

QR Code

2D Barcodes can contain more complex information

URLs and links to Webpages
Images

RFID SCANNING

RFID uses a radio signal to communicate between a tag and a reader

Passive RFID gets power from the RF signal to power the tag

(NFC in credit cards is similar)

Active RFID tags have their own internal power source

OUR MFD MARKERS

MFD markers are our enabling technology that they are higher performance special patterns and real time algorithms to detect them in live video. They are based on a combination of cutting edge image processing technology and telecom level data algorithms to yield a high reliability across several detection metrics.

ProductionAR: MFD Marker

MFD Markers visible at 10 times greater distances than QR-Codes

MFD Marker:26.8M vs QR-Code: 3.6M

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QR-codes to MFD markers comparison333(2)

QR-codes to MFD markers comparison333(3)

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Comparison between QR-Codes and the MFD6am Fiducial Marker from ProductionAR

An "eye chart" of 9 patterns each 1.75" wide is viewed with 4 different iOS apps on an iPhone 6S. Six QR-codes of varying density and 3 MFD6am markers are evaluated for how far away they can detect the code.

MFD fiducial demo June 12 2016

Demonstration of the 'MFD Fiducial Marker System'. An iOS app detects marker patterns and draws a green square and marker ID number over marker in image. Screen capture of iPhone 6s running at a video resolution of 1920x1080 (1080p). Millennium Three Technologies Inc June, 2016

Patents and Publications

Our parent company's first 8 years of business have been based on readers of our academic publications. Licencees of MFD markers include several European SCADA firms and a Hollywood special effects firm.

Patents

Mark Fiala, United States Patent US No. 7,769,236 B2 Marker and Method for Detecting Said Marker Aug. 3, 2010

Mark Fiala, United States Patent US. No.10,504,231 FIDUCIAL MARKER PATTERNS, THEIR AUTOMATIC DETECTION IN IMAGES, AND APPLICATIONS THEREOF Dec. 10, 2019

Mark Fiala, Canadian Patent # 2926861, 2017 FIDUCIAL MARKER PATTERNS, THEIR AUTOMATIC DETECTION IN IMAGES, AND APPLICATIONS THEREOF

3 EPO (European) and 2 USPTO (United States) in process

Books

Mark Fiala, Stephen Cawood Pragmatic Augmented Reality: Using Augmented Reality, (a programming book) Pragmatic Bookshelf LLC, 2006 300 pages - in review, expected printing Q4 2007

Journal Publications

Mark Fiala Designing Highly Reliable Fiducial Markers PAMI journal (IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis Intelligence), vol.32, no.7, July 2010, pg.1317-1324

Conference Proceedings Publications

Mark Fiala, ARTag, a Fiducial Mark System Using Digital Techniques. CVPR 2005 (Proc. IEEE Computer Vision & Pattern Recognition) Vol 2, Pages 590-596, July 2005

Mark Fiala, Magic Lens Augmented Reality: Table-top and Augmentorium. SIGGRAPH 2007, Aug 5-9, 2007