Beachcomber AR

Hand-tracking AR filter for Instagram

Turning a quiet moment of beachcombing into an augmented reality experience.

The idea

When I moved closer to the beach, I found myself spending a lot of time pondering over the stones. Picking them up and turning them over felt like a kind of meditation, and I loved their strange, interesting shapes.

I wanted to turn that brief moment of reflection into an AR experience, and use it as a chance to experiment with hand tracking.

1 Wander 2 Collect 3 Scan 4 Build 5 Share

1 / Wander

When I moved to Glasgow, I started spending much more time on the beaches of the west coast, in places like Cumbrae, Largs, Helensburgh, Ayr and Troon. I would spend hours walking the shoreline, collecting little fragments of sea glass, pottery, stones and interesting shells.

I felt drawn to these objects. They grounded me, and searching for them felt meditative.

After one particularly fruitful haul, we sat in the pub admiring our treasures, and I started thinking about how I could recreate that moment for when I’m not at the beach.

A worn limpet shell ring held up at the shore

A haul of sea glass, pottery and shells on a pub table

2 / Collect

I was drawn to the flat lay images other beachcombers post online, and used them as a visual reference. Removed from their surroundings on the beach, the pieces feel so precious, like little natural treasures that just presented themselves to you.

Shells and sea glass laid out on an open palm

3 / Scan

I laid the objects out on paper and used photogrammetry to scan them together. I then cropped away the paper and table, leaving just the shells, glass and pottery as 3D models.

Photogrammetry scan: the full capture, cropping the scene, and the isolated 3D objects

4 / Build

I built the filter in Meta Spark AR, using hand tracking so the objects respond to your hand.

Early tests

In one of the first tests, the scanned objects appeared much smaller in the hand than the real ones.

Early AR test with scanned objects floating above a hand — Early test in AR

The real objects held in a hand for comparison — The real objects