Sideloading

"Sideloading" is the term for loading an app onto your Android device via a direct connection to another computer. It is an alternative to "downloading" the app from either an official app store or from a website.

Where to get a build

Installing

The commands in this tutorial should be entered into your command-line terminal. On macOS, you can find Terminal window in Applications > Utilities. On Windows 10, choose the Search or Cortana button from the taskbar and type cmd and press enter.

Install ADB

ADB, the Android Debug Bridge, is a command-line tool which allows you to perform a variety of different functions on your Android-based VR device remotely from your PC. We will be using its ability to install and uninstall apps.

Follow these instructions

Install Camera Calibration via adb

From the terminal:

adb devices

Make sure your device is listed, and does not have “unauthorized” beside it. (If it does, you’ll need to put on the device and accept the connection). Then:

adb install /path/to/artoolkitx-calib-camera-v*-release.apk

Replace /path/to/artoolkitx-calib-camera-v*-release.apk with the filesystem path of the artoolkitx-calib-camera-v*-release.apk file you downloaded. For example, if you were on macOS and downloaded it to your Downloads folder, you could type:

adb install ~/Downloads/artoolkitx-calib-camera-v*-release.apk

First run.

Run from your device

On some devices, you may first need to enable "unknown sources" on your device.

Run from Command Line

You can also launch the app from the command-line on your computer, again using adb.

adb shell am start -n org.artoolkitx.utilities.calibcameraandroid/org.artoolkitx.utilities.calibcameraandroid.CameraCalibrationActivity

Uninstalling/re-installing

To uninstall from the command-line:

adb uninstall org.artoolkitx.utilities.calibcameraandroid

After which you can reinstall a new/different version using the instructions above.

Stopping the app.

To stop the app from the command line:

adb shell am force-stop org.artoolkitx.utilities.calibcameraandroid