AniCode: Authoring Coded Artifacts for Network-Free Personalized Animations

TL;DR

AniCode is a low-cost, privacy-preserving framework that enables authors to encode personalized, time-based media into printed codes, which consumers can decode using a mobile app to view contextually personalized animations without internet access.

Contribution

The paper introduces AniCode, a novel system for authoring and consuming personalized, coded animations embedded in physical objects, enhancing privacy and ease of use.

Findings

System supports various animation schemes including geometric and color transformations.

User study shows high ease of use and effectiveness.

Demonstrated applications across diverse domains like education and cultural heritage.

Abstract

Time-based media (videos, synthetic animations, and virtual reality experiences) are used for communication, in applications such as manufacturers explaining the operation of a new appliance to consumers and scientists illustrating the basis of a new conclusion. However, authoring time-based media that are effective and personalized for the viewer remains a challenge. We introduce AniCode, a novel framework for authoring and consuming time-based media. An author encodes a video animation in a printed code, and affixes the code to an object. A consumer uses a mobile application to capture an image of the object and code, and to generate a video presentation on the fly. Importantly, AniCode presents the video personalized in the consumer's visual context. Our system is designed to be low cost and easy to use. By not requiring an internet connection, and through animations that decode correctly only in the intended context, AniCode enhances privacy of communication using time-based media. Animation schemes in the system include a series of 2D and 3D geometric transformations, color transformation, and annotation. We demonstrate the AniCode framework with sample applications from a wide range of domains, including product "how to" examples, cultural heritage, education, creative art, and design. We evaluate the ease of use and effectiveness of our system with a user study.