I was interested in augmenting an image with a 3D design using visual markers.  Searching the web ARToolkit looked like a promising project.  ARSights also looked promising, alas it was Mac and not open source.

If you want to learn something about a software package usually the best place to begin is Wikipedia.  Here is the entry on ARToolkit.

It looks like there are spin-offs.  ARToolKitPlus, OSGART, NyARToolKit, and several others look like they have potential.

Log
After going to sourceforce for the latest version I found the Linux version only had 1 meg, conversly the windows and mac versions where over 10 Megs.  I half-heartedly tried to compile the Windows version, but found GLUT dependencies a pain.  My preference would be to get it running on Linux anyway.

I donwloaded the Linux version and ran the Configure script.  Initially I tried using V4L support, but since Fedora 15 no longer supports V4L (only V4L2), that was a lost cause.   Reconfigured using gstreamer support.  GStreamer is a nifty system which allows you to stream video (among many other things).  After successfully compiling the source I had difficulty in getting the correct parameters for ARToolkit.  It would start but segfault.  Looking around I finally found a link with the missing parts.

#export ARTOOLKIT_CONFIG="v4l2src device=/dev/video0 use-fixed-fps=false ! ffmpegcolorspace ! capsfilter caps=video/x-raw-rgb,bpp=24,width=320,height=240 ! identity name=artoolkit ! fakesink"
 

And after that I GOT VIDEO ... YAY !

For some reason it explodes in 640x480...   hmmm

BETTER ! - This config will create a 640x480 on my system without the nasty segfault

export ARTOOLKIT_CONFIG="v4l2src device=/dev/video0 ! ffmpegcolorspace ! capsfilter caps=video/x-raw-rgb,bpp=24,width=640,height=480 ! identity name=artoolkit ! fakesink"
 

Hey Look !  There's a Utah teapot on my paper !

Next... how to change the Teapot object to something else...

References :