Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality

 Augmented Reality
 Def: An artificial environment created through the
combination of real-world and computer generated
data.
 Augmented Reality was initially designed for medicine,
military and maintenance purposes.
 So companies interested in mobile development such as
Nokia, Qualcomm, Google are willing to fund research
on AR.
Virtual Reality vs. Augmented
Reality
 Virtual Reality (VR)
a computer generated, interactive, 3D
environment in which a person is immersed :
virtual, interactive and immersive
 Augmented Reality (AR)
Supplements the real world with the
virtual(computer generated) objects that appear
to coexist in the same space as the real world.
How does AR Work?
 The basic idea of augmented reality is to
superimpose graphics, audio and other
sense enhancements over a real-world
environment in real-time.
 The graphics will then change to
accommodate the user’s eye or head
movements.

Simulated augmented reality medical

image
What is needed?
 There are three components needed in order to make
an augmented-reality system work:
 Head-mounted display
 Tracking system
 Mobile computing power
Current Uses of AR

 Yellow first down line

used on TV broadcasts of
football games:
 Real world elements:
football field and
players
 Virtual element: the
yellow line drawn over
the image by computers
in real-time
Current Uses of AR

 HUD (Head Up Display):

 Used in commercial aircraft, automobiles, and
other applications
 Presents data without requiring the user to look
away from his or her usual viewpoint
 LifeClipper

 LifeClipper is a wearable
AR system being used in
Switzerland.

 When walking around a

chosen culturally
interesting area, the user
will feel as though they
are watching a film.
 Augmented Reality vs. Virtual
Reality
Augmented Reality Virtual Reality
 System augments the  Totally immersive
real world scene environment
 User maintains a  Senses are under
sense of presence in control of system
real world  Need a mechanism to
 Needs a mechanism feed virtual world to
to combine virtual user
and real worlds  Hard to make VR
 Hard to register real world interesting
and virtual
Augmented Reality vs. Virtual Reality

Engineering Education –Virtual Storm

History of AR

 Head Mounted Display (HMD)

 1968 – Ivan Sutherland
 Idea behind 3D display
 Perspective image which changes as the user moves (kinetic
depth effect)
 Change experience must be the same as the image of a real
object.
 Must appear 3D without stereo dimension.
History of AR cont..

 Global Pointing System

 1993 – Military
 Wearable Wireless Webcam
 1994 – Steve Mann
 Touring Machine
- 1997 – Steve Feiner
(Columbia University ,
New York.)
 Battlefield Augmented
Reality System (BARS) – 2000
 History Cont..
‣ iLamps(2005) ~ An
enhanced projector that
can determine and
respond to the geometry
of the display surface to
create a self-configuring
display.
‣ Shape adaptive
display
‣ Object-adaptive
display
‣ Projecting
content onto a
recognized
object.
History of AR Cont…
The Invisible Train (2004)
• A multi-user AR
application for handheld
devices.
• Players control virtual
trains on a real wooden
miniature railroad
track.
• Magic lens metaphor.
• Players can interact
with the game
environment by
operating track switches
and adjusting the speed
of their virtual trains.
• common goal of the
game is to prevent the
virtual trains from
Augmented Tracking

 “Tracking is the name given to an AR application’s

attempts to recognize and follow the physical objects of
a scene”(Georg Klein).
 Three kinds of tracking for Augmented Reality
 Marker-based
 Known texture or pattern recognition
 Parallel Tracking and Mapping (PTAM)
Future of AR:
Google’s Project Glass
 Blue-sky project by Google’s mysterious research and
development arm, Google X.
 Project Aim
 To augment your everyday experiences by superimposing a
layer of visual indicators directly onto your field of vision.
 Natural language voice commands
 Google’s Android Operating System
 If your smartphone could be a visor
Future of AR: Project Glass

Project Glass Video

Future of AR: Project Glass

 Provide 3G or 4G wireless connection

 More of a concept than an actual product
 Mounting the device onto prescription glasses
 UI Problem
 Interaction through a wristbands with haptic feedback
 Milgram’s Reality-Virtuality
Continuum

Mixed Reality (MR)

Real Augmented Augmented Virtual

Environment Reality (AR) Virtuality (AV) Environment

Milgram coined the term “Augmented Virtuality” to identify

systems which are mostly synthetic with some real world
imagery added such as texture mapping video onto virtual
objects.
Combining the Real and Virtual Worlds
(cont)
 Register models of all 3D objects of interest
with their counterparts in the scene
 Track the objects over time when the user
moves and interacts with the scene
Realistic Merging

Requires:
 Objects to behave in physically
plausible manners when
manipulated
 Occlusion
 Collision detection
 Shadows
Research Activities

 Develop methods to register the two distinct sets (real,

virtual) of images and keep them registered in real-time
 This often reduces to finding the position of a camera
relative to some fiducial markers
 Develop new display technologies for merging the two
images
Performance Issues

Two performance criteria are placed on the

system:
 Update rate for generating the augmenting
image
 Accuracy of the registration of the real and
virtual image
 Update rate can limit registration accuracy as well
 Brooks paper – “1 ms = 1mm error”
Failures in Registration

Failures in registration due to:

 Noise
 Position and pose of camera with respect to the real scene

 Image distortions
 Time delays
 In calculating the camera position
Display Technologies

 Monitor Based
 Laptops
 Cell phones
 Projectors (more Ubiquitous Computing)
 Head Mounted Displays:
 Video see-through
 Optical see-through
Monitor Based Augmented
Reality
 Simplest available
 Treat laptop/PDA/cell phone as a window
through which you can see AR world.
 Sunglasses demo
Monitor Based AR

 Successful commercialization
 Yellow line in football broadcasts
 Glowing hockey puck
 Replace times square billboards with own commercials
during New Year’s Eve broadcasts
 Baseball cards
 Ad campaigns
Optical see-through HMD
Video see-through HMD
Advantages of
Video see-through HMD

 Flexibility in composition strategies

 Real and virtual view delays can be matched
Advantages of
Optical see-through HMD
 Simplicity
 Resolution
 No eye offset
Advantage of Monitor Displays

 Consumer-level equipment
 Most practical
 A lot of current research aimed here
 Other current active area is a flip-down optical display.
Early Application

 KARMA (91)
 Feiner

 Optical see-through
HMD
 Knowledge-based
assistant for
maintenance
 Ultrasound trackers
attached to assembly
parts
Early Application

 Later – “architectural
anatomy” - movie
 Tourguide - movie
More Mechanical

 ECRC
UNC - Medical

 Early 90’s
 Lots of work on
reducing registration
error
 Explain movie
 Teapot movie
 Medical applications
 movie
Future of AR

 Military:
 The Office of Naval Research has sponsored AR
research
 AR system could provide troops with vital
information about their surroundings.
 Medical:
 Superimpose an image from an MRI onto a
patient’s body.
 This might allow surgeons to pinpoint a tumor to
remove.
 Education:
 Used in labs where students can learn more
about the experiments they are participating in.
 Future of AR

 Gaming:
 ARQuake is an AR version of
the popular game Quake.
 1st person shooter that
allows the user to run
around in the real world
while playing a game in
the computer generated
world.
 Uses GPS, a hybrid
magnetic and interial
orientation sensor, gun
controller, and a standard
laptop carried in a
backpack.
Why continue research in AR?

 AR systems will instantly recognize what

someone is looking at, and retrieve and
display the data related to that view.

 There are hundreds of potential applications

for such a technology, gaming and
entertainment being the most obvious ones.

 Any system that gives people instant

information, requiring no research on their
part, is bound to be a valuable to anyone in
any field.
Conclusion

 Augmented Reality – to overlay computer-presented

material on top of the real world
 History of AR ~ the Head Mounted Display (HMD)
 Augmented Tracking
 Future of AR
 Google’s Project Glass
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THANK YOU…….