← Laura Bloch

Creative Technologies · Physical + Digital

Augmented Reality Travel Map

An augmented-reality map of my travels throughout the world.

Watercolor map of central Europe on canvas, mounted between two wooden dowels, with enamel travel pins marking cities
Watercolor map of "central Europe" with pins serving as Augmented Reality targets

Idea

As my "Passion Project" for Erin Riley's course Studio in Creative Technologies, I am creating an augmented-reality map of my travels across the world. I've collected pins from many of the cities I've visited, so I will use these pins to mark the cities on the map. I developed an augmented-reality app in which one may scan each pin to view photos from my trip to the city where it was purchased.

Process

I began with a mind map that developed over a couple of months as I experimented with different technologies such as laser cutting and etching, vinyl cutting, and digital embroidery. Slowly, my concept for AR-enabled maps featuring my collection of pins began to surface.

Process diagram tracing the project from mind map through embroidered map, laser-etched map, watercolor map, and augmented-reality app, with sticky notes recording what worked and what didn't
A city street map embroidered in purple and teal thread on natural canvas
Digitally-embroidered street map of Seville, Spain
Laser-etched map of central Europe burned into canvas with enamel travel pins attached
Laser-etched map of "central Europe" with pins serving as AR targets
Screenshot of the AR app showing a grid of photos from Rome surrounding the scooter pin, with a Blog button in the center
Screenshot of AR app prototype created in Unity with Vuforia

My initial idea was to digitally embroider each map, but these maps required a level of detail not feasible for the scale of my project. Next, my instructor suggested I laser etch the maps on canvas. While laser etching was efficient for the scale of my maps, I felt it lacked dimension. I turned to this map on Amazon (below, left) for inspiration and chose to vinyl-cut stencils and water color my maps.

A colorful watercolor world map illustration by Michael Tompsett
Map by Michael Tompsett on Amazon
Hand-watercolored map of central Europe on canvas in blues, purples, greens, and yellows
Initial proof-of-concept using vinyl-cut stencils and water color
Hand-watercolored map of the British Isles, France, Spain, and Portugal on canvas
Final map of "western Europe"

Completed Project

The completed project consists of two maps and an AR application. The application is open-source and available at github.com/lrbloch/ar_travel_map. The maps are currently hanging on the wall in my living room where guests can interact with them when they visit.

Laura Bloch standing beside two finished watercolor canvas maps hanging on a wall — western Europe and central Europe
Me with my completed AR maps

Future Work

Future work on this project includes the following five to-do items:

  1. Watercolor US map using laser-cut cardstock stencil
  2. Addition of US pins and AR elements
  3. Manual creation of new pins for cities where I did not purchase them
  4. Digital embroidery of travel paths
  5. Addition of miniature maps for countries not yet included: Israel, South Africa, Morocco…

Questions, Suggestions, Requests

Please contact me at laura.r.bloch@gmail.com or @laura_bloch

Musings

Laura Bloch beside the two finished watercolor canvas maps

On My Finalized AR Travel Maps

View this post in its entirety on Medium.

Last Monday, I presented my finalized Augmented Reality Travel Maps.

Vuforia image-target test showing a 3D scooter model anchored above a printed tracking pattern

On Targets and Augmentation

With my two most important maps complete, the past couple of weeks have been focused on developing my AR app.