With AR Smart Measure, SightCall Agents can use Augmented Reality (AR) technology to take measurements over live SightCall video sessions.
1. Installing and activating the tool
First, the agent must click on Measurement . This icon is only available if the guest's device supports AR (well over 50% of iOS and Android devices do as of June 2019).
All iOS devices from the iPhone 6s onwards are supported. Android compatibility varies by vendor.
For iOS devices, no additional download is required.
For Android devices that do not have ARCore installed, the Agent is notified of the missing requirement and notified that the guest needs to install ARCore.
Meanwhile, guests are prompted to install the latest ARCore version.
After clicking Continue, a Play Store popup prompts the guest to install the latest version of ARCore. Selecting Install adds ARCore to the guest's device.
2. Using Smart Measurement
Once the app has successfully been downloaded and installed (if required), measurement is enabled immediately within the call:
The video size may change as the aspect ratio of the video will match the aspect ratio of the guest's device’s display.
The red or green light signifies whether the guest device is able to identify planes (flat surfaces) from the image. Typically, the button remains red only if there is very limited video data (for example, the guest has covered their camera by putting their device down on a table, or is covering the camera with their hand).
The guest is responsible for training the AR Measurement and for specifying measurement points. Best practice on how to create the most accurate measurements is covered in the next section.
3. Guest Steps to follow for Optimal Measurements
We recommend holding the smartphone between a palm to an arm-length away from the point you want to measure – the closer the better - then move to the next one. The measurement will be much more accurate if the phone moves in space from one point to another.
There is no need to have all the points to measure together in the screen to start measuring. In fact, this may result in a faulty measurement.
How to position the points
To improve the accuracy of a measurement, position the point on a “point of interest”, for example, the corner of a door or the intersection of the wall and the floor.
If the phone struggles to find a point, create one, for example with a post-it note or another small object.
Validating the position of points
When a point is positioned, ask the guest to show you the whole area again, from different angles, to ensure the points are actually where you want them to be
Smart measure will alert you if a point is not on the same flat surface as the others
Measuring a surface
Smart Measure will automatically calculate a surface area as soon as three points are positioned.
There is no need to close the area, the first and last points are automatically linked.
4. Agent steps to follow
Identifying Planes
Once the Guest has successfully trained the Smart Measure feature, planes (flat surfaces) will be signified by 2D dots arranged in a triangular fashion, as shown below:
As the agent, you are then able to hover your cursor over the live video to guide the guest as to where you would like them to place the measurement point:
Once the guest taps on the screen to place a measurement point, it is shown as a sphere:
The guest taps on the screen again to select another measurement point, at which point a line is created between the two points, showing the distance (in either Imperial or Metric units, as configured by your SightCall Administrator).
Once two measurement points have been set, they appear in the measurement bar, alongside the relevant distance:
If for any reason you would like to remove the last measurement point by a customer, simply click “Undo”. If you would like to remove all measurement points, click “Reset”.
To create a further point to measure, the guest must simply tap the screen again (there is no practical limit to the number of measurements):
After three points are measured, Smart Measure automatically calculates a surface area (it is not necessary to complete the points):
The Save button in the Measurement bar has similar (but not the exact same) functionality as “Save Picture”. The difference is that the "Save" button includes the "fetching guest picture" process which tries to save a surface/plane measurement to the SightCall case report.
If SightCall detects that particular points are being measured on different flat surfaces (planes), the following warning is generated:
5. General Best practices
- Make sure that measurements are done in a well lit environment. This will improve the AR capabilities of detecting the surface planes.
- Avoid bland color surfaces as this could cause problems for the AR measurement to find a point of reference to generate a grid (for example a white blank wall). The smart tool needs to detect reference points to work effectively. For this reason it is recommended to objects, or surfaces with clear identification markers (i.e. furniture, doors, windows, etc.)
- When measuring, make sure to move slowly and avoid fast, jerking motions.
- Don't stand too far away from the measuring surface. It is recommended that users stand between 30-60cm away from the object/surface that is being measured
- Only measure on surfaces that are detected by the tool (marked with a grid). Trying to measure on surfaces without a grid can lead to incorrect measurement values or other unforseen issues.