Augmented Reality Holograms with Depth Masking (4/10/2015)

Today I worked on implementing more features into my augmented reality holograms.
So far, I have been able to render objects on top of a hologram as projections, but I wanted to try rendering them behind the image target as windows.
To do this, I started by putting my hologram underneath the image target.

However, this did not provide the illusion I wanted, because I needed the object to nor render when it is cut out of frame from the image target.

To do this, I created a plane with a hole for the "window" that is aligned with the image target.

I then created a custom shader that does not render anything behind it, effectively creating a virtual hole that placed into the camera texture.

I then applied my shader to the plane.

Now, the hologram is cut off if it is seen from an angle, as if it is in a hole behind reality, and the image target is the only way through.

I then replaced the DNA molecule with a starfeild from Hubble. I also added a particle system to creating a twinkling effect, and when I look at the image target now, it is almost as if I am on a spaceship looking outside. If I go close and look up, I can see more of the top region, just as if it were really there.

Next, I decided to mesh together the objects from my Immersive Oculus Rift + Leap Motion human machine interface, so I imported my tree object into my hologram project. I attached it to an image target, gave it a crosshair, and attached the VirtualButton script I wrote earlier.

My next step was to add specific cases for each of the leaves on my tree, as I could only interact with them on the 2D plane, unlike the Leap.

Finally, I created more virtual buttons, and linked them to each node of the tree.