A new mural in Edmonds, Washington, “Aosagi” (from “ao” for blue, and “sage” for heron) features custom Augmented Reality presentations created by WORKSHOP 3D. Visitors can use their phones to meet the artist, Shogo Ota, and two other presenters by scanning a QR code or typing a URL into their browsers. No app download is required, making this our most accessible A.R. implementation to date.

The mural is a part of Mural Project Edmonds, a program of Art Walk Edmonds, a 501(c)3 arts organization in Edmonds, Washington, and is located near the corner of Fourth Avenue North and Main Street, and celebrates Edmonds’ relationship with its’ Japanese sister city, Hekinan.

For this project, MPE has partnered with Urban Artworks, a Seattle nonprofit that creates public art by embracing the creativity and diversity of the community and has a deep commitment to cultural and racial equity. Through Urban Artworks, MPE has procured the talented Shogo Ota, a Japanese muralist, to create the mural. It was through Shogo’s unparalleled creativity and knowledge of the Japanese culture that the mural was designed.

Our part of the project involved overseeing the production of several green-screen videos of the participants for use in the Augmented Reality experience, and preparing the presentation to be seen on your device. The videos were produce with the assistance of student videographer Shane Hansen, and Ten Gun Design in Edmonds contributed the use of their office and green screen for the shoot.

WORKSHOP 3D had three goals in taking on this project. The first was to increase our experience working with large-scale targets. This is a big mural, and we have successfully placed three different people in three different places in front of the mural. The second goal was to explore how far webAR has come, and whether it would allow us to create this experience in a browser instead of an app. Although webAR capabilities are limited compared to app-based Augmented Reality, they proved sufficient for this project. The third was to have another happy client, and we believe that we have achieved this goal as well!

In fact, with several existing murals already in place, and Mural Project Edmonds’ plans to develop more, we hope to remain involved in the project and provide additional A.R. experience for these murals. Time will tell.

If you would like to meet the artist and other presenters in Augmented Reality, visit https://workshop3d.com/edmonds on your phone or tablet (mobile devices only) while you are at the mural. Additional instructions will appear on screen, but it’s pretty easy. Once the page loads, simply point your camera toward the mural (It should work on the image above, as well, but it’s more fun to see it in real life)!

From the menu within the page, you can access additional information about the presenters, Shogo Ota, Dave Earling, and Denise Cole, as well as Art Walk Edmonds, Mural Project Edmonds, and the history of Japanese Immigration in the Northwest.