Augmented reality viewing of printer image processing stages

A method of generating an Augmented Reality (AR) display environment, comprising:

• establishing a data connection at a mobile device, wherein the data connection connects to a printer image processing pipeline comprising printer image data, and the mobile device comprises an imaging sensor and a display;
• receiving the printer image data on the mobile device from the printer image processing pipeline, wherein the printer image data comprises pixels;
• generating an augmentation object of a virtual image based on the received printer image data, comprising:
• calculating two-dimensional (2D) coordinates for the four corners of the virtual image, wherein the virtual image is rectangular in shape and includes four corners, comprising:
• determining the distance between each corner of the virtual image to an adjacent corner of the virtual image, wherein the distance is the visible dimension in pixels of the display of the mobile device used to display the virtual image;
• calculating apparent 2D coordinates of each corner of the virtual image, wherein the apparent 2D coordinates are percentages relative to the longest visible dimension of the virtual image in the AR display environment on the display;
• and
• calculating a pixel resolution from the apparent 2D coordinates, wherein the pixel resolution includes the apparent 2D coordinates of each corner of the virtual image;
• receiving live video data of the physical environment from the imaging sensor on the mobile device, wherein the physical environment includes physical objects with detectable features, and the content of the live video data collected by the imaging sensor is at least partially directed by a user input;
• generating a local three-dimensional (3D) model of the physical environment utilizing the live video data;
• receiving mobile device tracking data from the mobile device;
• adapting the local 3D model based on the mobile device tracking data, thereby creating an adapted local 3D model;
• combining the augmentation object with the adapted local 3D model to create the AR display environment;
• and
• configuring the mobile device to display the AR display environment.