Vuforia Target Manager

This page concerns the Vuforia Engine API version 9.8 and earlier. It has been deprecated and will no longer be actively updated.

The Vuforia Target Manager is a web-based tool that enables you to create and manage target databases on Vuforia’s developer portal. Choose between Device, VuMark, and Cloud databases and upload your targets to the manager for visual evaluation and processing.

Supported Targets

The Target Manager supports target images of type

Image Targets
Multi Targets
Cylinder Targets
Object Targets
VuMarks

Working with the Target Manager

To begin working with the Target Manager, you will need a Vuforia Engine Developer account.
Follow this guide on How To Register as a Vuforia Engine Developer.
All Databases created in the Target Manager must be associated with a license key. Follow the guide How to Create an App License to create and set up your Vuforia license.

Create your Target Database

Once you have a license key defined in the License Manager, you can proceed to create a database by following one of three provided guides. Select the one that best fit the type of database you are going to use. See the Device, VuMark, and Cloud Databases section for more details.

Add Targets to your Database

You can add different target types to a device database so that it contains both i.e. Multi Targets and Image Targets.

In the Add Target window, you can select between Single Image, Cuboid, Cylinder, and 3D Object. For each target, you will need to provide a name, its dimensions in meters, and the image source you wish to create a target from. The target size that you define in meters should represent the actual aspect ratio of your image. For example, a 20-centimeter wide printed Image Target will have a width of 0.20. Depending on your target type you may need to fill in additional dimensions to define your image-based target.

See the article covering the Physical Properties of Image Targets for information on creating image-based targets and Best Practices for Designing and Developing Image-Based Targets for improving your targets’ trackability.

If you receive error messages during target creation, please refer to the Troubleshooting Errors from the Target Manager section below.

Use your Target Database

When you have successfully added your targets, you can now download the device database or use the target IDs for your application. You can continue to add and edit targets in your database. If you make changes to a device database, do not forget to download and re-import it into your application or into the Unity Editor.

A device database is stored in a combination of an .xml and a .dat file that can be downloaded as a .unitypackage or as a .zip file.

NOTE: The license key for your database and your application must be the same. See How to add a License Key to your Vuforia Engine App for more information.

Device, VuMark, and Cloud Databases

Vuforia Engine supports three database types for storing image-based targets. You can select the type of database that best fit your use case based on the table below.

Device Databases are local databases of image or object targets that are stored on the user's device.	Use a Device Database when you need to the fastest possible recognition of Image, Cylinder or Multi Targets targets and won't need to change the target set for your app very frequently. You should also use a Device Database when using Object Targets for Object Recognition.
VuMark Databases are local databases of VuMarks that are stored on the user's device.	Use a VuMark Database when you need to recognize, decode and/or track a VuMark.
Cloud Databases are databases of Image Targets stored online and queried over the internet.	Use Cloud Databases when you need to detect from up to 1 million Image Targets or want the convenience of being able to actively manage your target set online. Cloud Databases do not support Cylinder Targets or Multi-Targets.

There are also performance differences between Device and Cloud Database.

Query times for Device Databases are faster than for Cloud Databases.
Device Databases support tracking of multiple targets simultaneously, while Cloud Databases support tracking of one target at a time.
Large Device Databases can take a few seconds to load, while Cloud Databases can be queried as soon as your app starts.

NOTE: For furhter information see Comparison of Device and Cloud Databases page.

Troubleshooting Errors from the Target Manager

If you run into problems during target creation, please try the solutions listed.

Problem:

Solution:

ERROR MESSAGE

You get an error message while using the Target Manager to create or upload a new target.

Check the following conditions:

Your image is in one of the supported formats, PNG or JPEG
Your image is either grayscale or RGB-24 bit. This means that 32-bit images with an alpha channel (RGB + Alpha) are not allowed.
Your image size does not exceed 2.25 MB

MULTI TARGETS

When creating a Multi Target (cube or cuboid), the aspect ratio of each image must precisely match the aspect ratio of the corresponding face on your cube or cuboid.

The aspect ratio is computed as the ratio image width / image height. The following table lists examples of image resolutions and their aspect ratio.

Image	Aspect Ratio
A resolution of 1024 x 512 pixels	1024 / 512 = 2
A cube (all dimensions are equal)	All Faces are always 1
A cuboid with dimensions W (width) x H (height) x L (depth) top and bottom face images	W / L
front and back face images	W / H
left and right face image	L / H

IMAGE TARGET RATING

A target is not detected by Vuforia Engine.

Image Targets are assigned a star rating, depending on the quality of the target. The star rating influences the robustness of the target with respect to detection and tracking. The star rating can vary between 0 and 5 stars. A higher rating is better, because the image target provides easier detection and more stable tracking.

NOTE: That a target can be detected by Vuforia Engine only if it is rated at least 1 star. Any zero-star targets cannot be used. If your database contains any zero-star targets, you should not select them when downloading your database.

For more information on how to create high quality (and high rating) targets, see:

Best Practices for Designing and Developing Image-Based Targets

Image Targets Optimization Techniques