NextMeasure

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  Home screen- Ruler mode

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  Home screen- Height mode

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  Measurement mode

Inspiration

Frustration with using traditional tape measures for solo measurements. Difficulty measuring long distances without a second person. Inaccuracy and awkward handling on vertical surfaces (walls, ceilings). Lack of any built-in way to save or organize measurements. Idea of replacing physical tools with fast, intuitive AR-based interactions.

What it does

NextMeasure is a high-precision, solo-user Augmented Reality (AR) utility application that transforms your smartphone into a digital tape measure and height estimator. Using an active center-reticle targeting system, it lets you measure 3D distances on surfaces or estimate vertical heights (such as ceilings or a person's height) in real time.

The problem it solves

Traditional physical tape measures have limitations: they require a second person for long distances, bend and fold on vertical surfaces, and do not save your readings. NextMeasure eliminates these hurdles by providing a portable, solo-operated, and digital measurement tool that guarantees accuracy and allows you to save and label your readings instantly.

How we built it

Built on top of the native Android Java SDK and Android Studio. Utilized Google ARCore for active surface tracking and spatial raycasting. Implemented OpenGL ES 2.0 with custom shaders to render 3D lines. Created a premium programmatic UI with custom glassmorphic overlay sheets.

Challenges we ran into

Tracking coordinates on low-texture surfaces such as white walls or floors. Constraining 3D math strictly to the vertical axis for height estimation. Preventing frame drops when updating UI widgets from the OpenGL thread. Handling sudden camera session interruptions when resuming the application.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Delivering a premium, hardware-accelerated user interface built entirely programmatically. Achieving near-instant measurements utilizing ARCore's local Instant Placement API. Creating a robust vertical height tracker with mathematically constrained coordinates. Building a persistent, user-friendly history log system with localized haptic responses.

What we learned

How ARCore translates camera device movements into spatial coordinate tracking. Writing custom GLSL program shaders to draw virtual objects in real-time. Synchronizing multi-threaded rendering pipelines with the main Android UI thread. Designing high-fidelity programmatic user interfaces without heavy XML layout files.

What's next for NextMeasure

Implementing area and volume calculation modes by connecting multiple anchors. Adopting Google's Depth API to improve visual occlusion and tracking precision. Supporting cloud anchor systems to share 3D measurements across separate devices. Adding export capabilities to output saved histories directly to CAD or PDF.

Built With

• android-studio
• augmented-reality
• java