Sharing With Passion

March 13, 2014

Posted by Sabar Santoso in | March 13, 2014 No comments
Augmented Reality (AR) is a new technology that involves the overlay of computer graphics on the real world. One of the best overviews of the technology is that defined the field, described many problems, and summarized the developments up to that point. That paper provides a starting point for anyone interested in  researching or using Augmented Reality.

AR is within a more general context termed Mixed Reality (MR), which refers to a multi-axis spectrum of areas that cover Virtual Reality (VR), AR, telepresence, and other related technologies. Virtual Reality is a term used for computergenerated 3D environments that allow the user to enter and interact with synthetic environments. The users are able to “immerse” themselves to varying degrees in the computers artificial world which may either be a simulation of some form of reality or the simulation of a complex phenomenon.

In telepresence, the fundamental purpose is to extend operator’s sensory-motor facilities and problem solving abilities to a remote environment. In this sense, telepresence can be defined as a human/machine system in which the human operator receives sufficient information about the teleoperator and the task
environment, displayed in a sufficiently natural way, that the operator feels physically present at the remote site. Very similar to virtual reality, in which we aim to achieve the illusion of presence within a computer
simulation, telepresence aims to achieve the illusion of presence at a remote location. AR can be considered a tecnology between VR and telepresence. While in VR the environment is completely synthetic and in telepresence it is completely real, in AR the user sees the real world augmented with virtual objects.

When designing an AR system, three aspects must be in mind: (1) Combination of real and virtual worlds; (2) Interactivity in real time; (3) Registration in 3D. Wearable devices, like Head-Mounted-Displays (HMD), could be used to show the augmented scene, but other technologies are also available. Besides the mentioned three aspects, another one could be incorporated: Portability. In almost all virtual environment systems, the user is not allowed to go around much due to devices limitations. However, some AR applications will need that the user really walks through a large environment. Thus, portability
becomes an important issue. 

For such applications, the 3D registration becomes even more complex. Wearable computing applications generally provide unregistered, text/graphics information using a monocular HMD. These systems are more
of a ”see-around” setup and not an Augmented Reality system by the narrow definition. Henceforth, computing platforms and wearable display devices used in AR must be often developed for more general applications.

The field of Augmented Reality has existed for just over one decade, but the growth and progress in the past few years has been remarkable. Since, the field has grown rapidly. Several conferences specialized in this area were started, including the International Workshop and Symposium on Augmented Reality, the International Symposium on Mixed Reality, and the Designing Augmented Reality Environments workshop.

Search

Bookmark Us

Delicious Digg Facebook Favorites More Stumbleupon Twitter