Augmented Reality (AR) is an innovative technology that augments or overlays real environment with digital or virtual content. It is used to create a close to real life experience by using digital content to bring the user into a new reality. Augmented Reality vividly shifts the location, experience, possibilities and timing of education and training. Markers used in AR Textbooks differ and can affect the application efficiency. A marker-based mobile AR app was implemented using Unity 3D and Vuforia SDK. Image markers were evaluated using the mobile AR app developed. In the first experiment, RGB coloured image markers of size 210by297mm and 70by99mm were detected by the AR application installed on mobile phones of varying specifications and there was no significant difference in the marker detection speed. In the second experiment, there was no significance difference in the speed of marker detection when RGB coloured markers were used and when greyscale markers were used by the same phone specification and mobile application The speed of marker detection and display of virtual content improved considerably while using high-end mobile phones than when using a low-end mobile phone. This shows that for marker-based mobile augmented reality applications developed using the Vuforia SDK, the image marker colour based on the samples in this paper has no impact on the speed of marker detections. The image marker size also has no impact on the speed of the marker detection. High-end mobile phones give a faster response time in the marker detection phase, while low-end mobile phones are slower. However, low-end devices can still be used for a good AR experience, especially in low-income communities.

Keywords: Augmented reality, Mobile application, Computer science, Image processing, Feature extraction.